Most commonly know as “the” state agency for economic development, the Alabama Development Office (ADO) has one mission – simply to create jobs in Alabama.

First established in the 1970s through a governor’s executive order and later re-established by the Alabama Legislature, ADO coordinates economic development resources leading to quality job creation throughout Alabama. ADO professionals work through a combination of efforts identifying prospects to grow and broaden Alabama’s industry base. The agency markets Alabama to the world identifying companies who could have an expansion project in the Southeast over the next three to five years. ADO also fields calls from site consultants who are hired by companies to find a location for their company.

According to ADO Director Neal Wade, “We work very hard to build relationships with site consultants and keep them up-to-date on information about our state because they are vital in supplying companies. We also work with economic development professionals across the state – some are specific to economic development organizations, some work with chambers and some are with companies. They are our allies and are a supplier of projects to us.”

ADO works with existing companies in the state who want to expand their business as well as companies who may want to locate in the state, also known as “projects.” When trying to land projects, Wade explained, ADO assembles an incentive package including statutory incentives, or those approved by the state legislature, and potentially non-statutory incentives that require governor’s approval and are offered based on the number of jobs, the salary range for the jobs and the overall investment the company plans to make.

Statewide industry targets for business include the automotive sector, whereby almost 60,000 people in Alabama work and more than 700,000 vehicles are manufactured annually; the aviation/aerospace sector; the life sciences and bio-technical sector; and distribution businesses. Additionally, specialty industry sectors like biomedical in Huntsville and Birmingham are targets as well as shipbuilding in Mobile.

Representatives from ADO utilize a number of venues to market Alabama at trade shows internationally and domestically. Regionally, representatives travel to numerous locales to market Alabama at plastics, biomedical and other industry-specific trade shows.