The Honorable Gray Swoope
President & CEO
VisionFirst Advisors
Tallahassee, FL
After 30 years of leading public and private economic development organizations in three states, Gray Swoope helped launch VisionFirst Advisors, an economic development consulting firm that provides services focused on: location advisory and site selection, economic development strategy and result-driven marketing and communications.
Gray and his team have established VisionFirst as a go-to consulting firm with a variety of clients from 26 states. From 2011-2015, he served in Florida Governor Rick Scott’s administration as Secretary of Commerce and as President & CEO of the state’s principal economic development organization, Enterprise Florida (EFI). Under his leadership, EFI completed a record year in 2013-14 increasing competitive projects by 40 percent, resulting in 73 percent more new jobs and 95 percent more capital investment. During Gray’s tenure, Florida announced competitive project wins from leading companies including Northrop Grumman, Embraer, Navy Federal Credit Union, Amazon, Bristol Myers Squibb, Deutsche Bank, Hertz, USAA and Verizon.
Prior to his tenure in Florida, Gray served as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) under Governor Haley Barbour. During his tenure at MDA, Gray helped recruit companies such as Toyota, PACCAR, GE Aviation and Severstal. Gray earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Mississippi State University.