MOBD's Rod Jane' snubs Choose Worcester
Rod Jané, executive director of the Mass. Office of Business Development, won't have Choose Worcester Inc. to kick around any more. The business-backed non-profit, formed in late 2005 to attract new businesses to Worcester, recently withdrew an offer to hire Jané as its first CEO after the prominent state economic official kept them waiting for weeks for a response to the deal.
Worcester business leader Kevin Condron, chairman of Choose Worcester's CEO search committee, says the group pulled the offer a week or so ago because "we couldn’t get comfortable that he had a passion for the job."
Choose Worcester has been searching for a CEO since December of 2005, using the service of Boston-based consultant Isaacson, Miller.
The group chose two finalists in the summer of 2006 for the $150,000 job, but both turned it down.
Condron says Jané – who met with the group and toured the city on December 11 – clearly had the best qualifications for the post. But Choose Worcester’s frustration mounted when Jané didn’t get back to them on the offer. Condron says the group will meet with its consultant to decide if it will revisit the previous candidate or restart the search process.
Jané admits he delayed a decision on the position after learning over the Christmas holiday that the Deval Patrick administration wanted to retain him as MOBD head, and awaited more details on that offer in early January. But Condron, Jané says, "wanted to rush for a decision."
Despite what he calls "semantic" difference in describing the handling of the Choose Worcester offer, Jané says he enjoyed meeting with the group and will work at the state level to help Worcester with its economic development goals.
Jané, a former president of Honeywell Inc. Consumer Products Group who holds a MBA from Harvard University, joined MOBD in July 2005.
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