Neal Wade is a veteran industrial recruiter who was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley as Director of the Alabama Development Office. ADO is the state’s lead economic development organization. Mr. Wade was actively involved in many of the state’s most successful economic development efforts, including the location of ThyssenKrupp to Alabama, National Railcar in the Shoals area, and most recently, the $40 billion Air Force tanker refueling project awarded to Northrop Grumman Corporation/EADS.

Prior to taking the reins of the Alabama Development Office, Wade served as vice president for economic development of the Florida-based St. Joe Company, a real estate operating company and the state's largest private landowner.

In Alabama, Wade served for nine years as president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, a private consortium of the state’s leading companies dedicated to economic development.

During Governor Riley’s administration, ADO has twice been named the top state economic development agency in the United States. Alabama’s economy has been named the best in the Southeast for five straight years.

Wade graduated from Samford University and he and his wife, Mary Ann, have three children and six grandchildren.