CVB executive resigns from position

BANGOR – Richard Greene confirmed Monday that he has resigned from his post as executive director of the Greater Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Greene, who also is chairman of the Bangor City Council and a candidate for Bangor School Committee, said he submitted a letter of resignation to John Holden, director of business services for Eastern Maine Development Corp., which houses the CVB’s offices and administers its budget and staff. CVB staff members technically are employees of EMDC.

Holden could not be reached for comment Monday night.

Greene, who assumed the CVB position on July 1, said he tendered his resignation at 1 p.m. Monday effective immediately.

“It’s an employment issue that is something that is between me and my employer. I would just say it was something that happened,” Greene said Monday night when asked why he resigned. “I’m going to move on to other ventures or venues.”

The resignation is limited to Greene’s role with the CVB. Greene said Monday he intended to complete his one-year term as council chair, which expires in November, as well as his second three-year term on the City Council, which expires in November 2008.

He also said he still has his eye on one of the two school committee seats available this fall.

Asked in a telephone interview if anything in particular prompted his resignation, Greene said, “I think it would be premature to give a reason at this point. It is what it is. It’s not something that I’m willing to say on the record. It happened. It is what it is. Leave the rest up to the historians.”

Bob Bangs, the CVB’s board president, also received a copy of Greene’s resignation letter. He said Monday night that Greene did not cite a specific reason in his letter to Holden, and that an e-mail from Holden to CVB executive committee members also did not include one.

“I think he wanted to pursue some other professional opportunities,” Bangs said.

Bangs said CVB officials likely will discuss the resignation and how to fill the vacancy during a previously scheduled meeting on Friday.

Greene was hired in June under former EMDC President and CEO Jonathan Daniels, who since has left Maine to become executive director of the Port of Oswego Authority in Oswego, N.Y.

Greene was selected from a field of about 40 candidates, four of whom were interviewed by a three-member panel, according to Bangs.

“It was a unanimous choice,” Bangs said in June.