Chief of EMDC to resign, take N.Y. job

BANGOR – Citing his desire to integrate economic development and port management, Jonathan T. Daniels, president and CEO of Eastern Maine Development Corp., announced Sunday that he will soon leave Maine to become the executive director of the Port of Oswego Authority in Oswego, N.Y.

“It’s with a lot of sadness and emotion that I’ve made this decision,” Daniels said. “I’ve come to just love the region. … Our capacity [at EMDC] to deliver professional service to our clients is something that amazes me on a daily basis.”

Daniels, 38, has worked in his current position at EMDC for 3 1/2 years.

This may not be last Maine sees of Daniels, as he will continue his involvement with the Atlantic Provinces Chambers of Commerce and the Atlantica Initiative, a movement to create an economic development region that spans northern New York, travels through Maine and ends in Nova Scotia.

“I look forward to strengthening the [Atlantica] foothold in the western portion of the Atlantica region and advertising the relevancy of the Atlantica network,” Daniels said.

For most of the past 15 years, Daniels has been involved in economic development efforts throughout the state. He has served as director of business and economic development for the city of Bangor, as port director of the Port of Eastport and as senior trade adviser at Maine International Trade Center’s Bangor office. He first moved to Maine in 1991 to work and attend graduate school at Maine Maritime Academy.

From 1999 to 2002, Daniels took a leave of absence from the state when he served as managing director of the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission in Louisiana.

Oswego is not foreign to Daniels, as he grew up about an hour west in Geneva, N.Y. The move will bring Daniels, his wife, Debra, and three of their children closer to his relatives in that area. By assuming his new position, Daniels will represent the third generation of his family to work in port operations on one of the Great Lakes, he said.

The Port of Oswego is the first U.S. port of call on Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean by way of the St. Lawrence River.

EMDC participates in business development activities within the state’s six eastern counties, assisting county and municipal administrations and securing federal, state and private funding for area projects. It has an operating budget of $7 million and employs 47 people. Daniels is “extremely proud” of the successes EMDC has seen in the past few years, he said.

One of the corporation’s most visible accomplishments is its decision to renovate and move into Norumbega Hall at 40 Harlow St., Daniels said. EMDC’s increased presence in the state’s midcoast region, the expansion of its lending and government contract programs and restructuring of its staff have “allowed us to better integrate the services we have internally … and apply them in a better way to the clients we work with,” Daniels said.

After providing needed funding to Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co. in 2004, EMDC received the Economic Development Project of the Year award from the Northeastern Economic Development Association, Daniels said proudly.

“Jonathan has demonstrated his capabilities to work very closely with the traditions that are so deeply embedded in each one of the communities served by EMDC. At the same time, he’s been passionate about helping to shape a vision for the future,” said Michael Crowley, an EMDC board member and former mayor of Bangor.

EMDC’s board of directors will begin “to outline the transition” and discuss efforts to fill Daniels’ position at its next meeting, Daniels said. He said he plans to stay at EMDC until the third week of June.