David Griggs was hired as CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance in 2018 to be a disrupter.
And he’s been just that.
Since joining the organization, he’s implemented a new strategic direction: The Alliance, traditionally viewed as a regional chamber, has become more of a private economic development agency with a primary mission to lure jobs and talent to the region.
The restructuring included a new leadership team and beefing up recruiting strategies. The Alliance also spun out its chamber function, bringing back the old Hartford Chamber of Commerce name it hadn’t used for nearly two decades.
There was also a plan to kick-start an unprecedented level of travel to sell Greater Hartford across the country. However, the pandemic interfered with that, while also creating other challenges in the effort to recruit companies to the region.
But Griggs — who came to Hartford from Minneapolis where he was vice president of business investment and research at the Greater Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership — said he’s bullish on the region’s ability to attract investment in the year ahead.
In fact, he told HBJ in December that the Alliance had 53 companies in some stage of conversation about potentially establishing a presence here.
“I’m highly confident you are going to see a lot of great wins in 2022 when companies start to really pull the trigger on moves and investment,” Griggs said. “That’s been our challenge in 2020 and 2021, companies trying to understand what the post-pandemic world looks like for them.”