North Port EDC names new chief

NORTH PORT — Jean Harris, previously an official with Florida International University, has been named executive director of the North Port Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit private organization.

Harris, according to a release, worked for Florida International University in Miami for the past nine years. Her most recent position was associate director of operations at the Kovens Conference Center. Harris worked at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. before FIU.

“We are excited about Jean joining our team,” North Port Economic Development Corp. Chairman Robert Rosenberg says in the release. “Jean's strengths include extensive business development skills, analytical and assessment skills, strategic thinking and planning, relationship building and teamwork, and is a very results oriented individual.”

Harris is a resident of North Port, the EDC says, and she commuted to Miami during the week for her job at FIU. One of her first official tasks at the EDC will be to oversee the organization's second annual meeting, scheduled for April 22. The keynote speaker for the event is Enterprise Florida President and CEO Gray Swoope.

Retired New York business executive Peter Bartolotta co-founded the EDC in 2011 and has since helped run the organization.