Basinger out at Manatee EDC

BRADENTON — The Manatee Economic Development Council is losing its executive director, for Eric Basinger is leaving the EDC for a new opportunity in his home state of Alabama.

Basinger came to the Manatee EDC from Alabama in June 2009, and is now returning there to serve as executive director of the Ozark-Dale County Economic Development Corp., a release from the EDC explains.

The Manatee Chamber of Commerce says it will launch a national search to find a new executive director to replace Basinger. While that search is conducted, EDC Associate Director Sharon Hillstrom will lead the organization's ongoing company recruitment efforts.

The EDC also says that Basinger's departure will not impact its plans to reorganize as an independent entity, separate from the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, in 2012.

Earlier this month, Basinger was involved in the addition of 60 new employees at Grand Incentives Inc., a Bradenton-based travel business. At the end of 2010, he was named chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership's eight-county Economic Development Council.