Al Wenstrand

Al Wenstrand is the President of Florida’s Great Northwest, a regional economic development organization representing the sixteen counties in Northwest Florida. In his role, Al formulates the overall strategy for the organization, as well as develops a regional economic development strategy for Northwest Florida. He directs all aspects of the business, including the areas of marketing, business development, workforce initiatives, and administration. In order to lay the groundwork for diversifying the regional economy, Al serves as a liaison to the community and works in conjunction with local educational institutions, workforce boards, businesses, and economic development organizations.

Prior to working at Florida’s Great Northwest, Al was appointed by

Governor Mike Johanns to the cabinet level position of Director of Economic Development for the State of Nebraska. In this position, he managed the divisions of business development, community and rural development, travel and tourism, and administration. During his tenure, he helped develop a targeted industry strategy that incorporated the cluster concept for traded industries in Nebraska’s state-wide strategic plan.

Before his appointment, Al was the Executive Director of the Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation. His office was located in the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce where he and his staff worked in cooperation with the Omaha Chamber in a four-county, regional economic development effort. Al and his staff were responsible for implementing an economic development program around a strategy of product development in the areas of both human and physical infrastructure development, business recruitment, business retention and expansion, and new business development (entrepreneurship), including operating a business incubator.

Al served for five years as the chairman of the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, Nebraska’s bonding, financing, and tax credit authority for housing, agriculture, manufacturing, medical, and community development endeavors. He also served on the board of directors as treasurer of the Applied Information Management (AIM) Institute, a not-for-profit membership organization created by a consortium of business, education and government entities to support and promote business growth related to information technology. The AIM Institute focuses on emerging technologies and serves as a catalyst for facilitating the changes and improvements necessary to meet the information technology needs of Nebraska businesses and their employees.

Prior to working in economic development, Al was a teacher, including eleven years teaching marketing and coaching track and gymnastics at Bellevue West High School, Bellevue, Nebraska. In 1989, the Marketing Education Association named Al the National Marketing Educator of the Year.