Brad Lofton, executive director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, has signed a three-year contract to become the new chief executive for the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation.

The Myrtle Beach EDC unanimously voted March 10 to offer Lofton the job. Lofton plans on officially announcing the change tonight at the Industrial Authority meeting.

“He’s had a history of proven success,” said Tom Rice, Horry County Council chairman stated. “He’s brought thousands of jobs to the various places he has worked at, and we’re thrilled to have someone with such an accomplished level of success, and we’re confident that he’ll bring the area the positive economic development we need.”

According to Rice, the South Carolina Department of Commerce brought in 100 potential resumes and another 100 applicants were solicited through the Myrtle Beach EDC.

 The search for a new chief executive began approximately a year ago.

“We narrowed the search down to a couple of dozen candidates and Lofton rose to the top,” said Rice.

According to Rice, Horry County is a diverse area, with the east side of the county located on the Atlantic Ocean and largely focused on tourism for economic development. On the west side of the county, agricultural development is the primary concern.

“We have a number of positive resources, especially Georgetown University, but we also don’t have an interstate, so he’ll certainly have a different set of challenges than what he might be used to,” said Rice.  Lofton will begin his new position on April 15 and he has submitted his 30-day letter of resignation to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.

Lofton believes the new position will be a good career opportunity, allowing him to work in a larger community with a variety of economic amenities and giving him a pay increase to approximately $121,000 a year.

“I’ve truly enjoyed living and working in South Georgia,” said Lofton. “I’ve had excellent support from the city and county leadership, and the industrial authority has allowed us to be aggressive in bringing industries into the area to create opportunities for the community. I’m very fortunate to be in such a community because some of my colleagues in other areas aren’t working for communities that believe in economic development as much as this area does.”

Jerry Jennett, chairman of the Industrial Authority, feels that Lofton has brought a number of great projects into the area, including the Home Depot expansion, Martins Famous Pastry Shoppe, Smith Drugs and Valdosta Optics Lab Inc.

“When you hire good people to work for you and they go on with their career, you have to be proud of them for doing better for themselves,” said Jennett. “I’ve been in tune with just about everything he’s done for us. He may not have approached things in the way I would have, but when you try and make people do stuff exactly the way you want to, you completely wash out any chance of new ideas or progressive actions, and Mr. Lofton has done a lot for this community.”

Lofton wanted to clarify that he was not leaving Valdosta because of the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility and the controversy surrounding the project.

“My move had absolutely nothing to do with the biomass plant or any of the stresses involved with that project,” said Lofton. “We’ve announced 17 new projects since I began, with over 2,000 new jobs and almost $500 million in economic development in the area, so I’m hoping that the biomass project is not my legacy.”

According to Jennett, the board has yet to find a replacement executive director, but he recommends that Allen Ricketts, project manager at the Industrial Authority, take over temporarily.

“If the candidate search goes on for an extended period of time, we might bring in some retired people that are familiar with development in the area, but we’ll put out advertisements, and hopefully within six weeks, we’ll be able to decide,” said Jennett.