Portland — The economic development groups Greenlight Greater Portland and Regional Partners will merge into a single public-private economic development organization for the Portland-Vancouver region, following unanimous votes Wednesday by the boards of the two organization.
The new organization will retain the Greenlight Greenlight Greater Portland name and will be governed by a board of regional CEOs and elected officials, including the mayor of Vancouver and, from Oregon, mayors of Hillsboro, Gresham and Beaverton. Oregon’s Multnomah and Clackamas counties and the multi-county Metro agency also will hold seats. Under the nonprofit’s mandate, the board will have a private sector majority, and all organizations holding board seats will be investors in the group.
Greenlight, created in 2007, had been a private-sector economic development organization. Regional Partners, formed in 1996, consisted of economic development professionals from local government jurisdictions. The new organization expects to hire a chief executive officer before its Regional Economic Summit on June 30.
