The Development Authority of Columbia County (DACC) has selected its new executive director, and she’s excited to take on her new role.
Cheney Thomasson Eldridge emerged as the finalist for the position earlier this month, after the Authority consulted the Cartersville, Ga. recruitment firm The Chason Group late last year to launch a search for a new director.
Eldridge would be leaving her current job as manager of Existing Industry and Strategic Partnerships with the Augusta Economic Development Authority (AEDA) to replace Robbie Bennett, who left the director’s chair last April to become CEO of the SRS Community Reuse Organization in Aiken.
“I’ve worked with Robbie the whole time that I’ve been in Richmond County, and worked with his team, and respect him a lot,” said Eldridge, who came to the AEDA in 2018. “So I knew a post that he was coming out of would be a good one.”
The University of Mississippi graduate is not unfamiliar with what will be her new territory, particularly Columbia County’s relevant technical workforce and economic data, via her work with Richmond County. But she looks forward to taking on what she calls the “positive challenge” of delving deeper and developing strategies.
“I don’t know it like I like I did it at AEDA,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to learn all of that, build those relationships, and really bring the Development Authority into a new era as the executive director.”
Indeed, maintaining fruitful connections with existing manufacturers was a large part of her role with AEDA, where she started as Existing Industry Coordinator. Within her first two years, she managed some 19 firm expansions and created a business retention and expansion program.
In 2021, the International Economic Development Council awarded her the Gold Level Excellence in Economic Development Award for the Masters Tournament Partnership Box initiative, in which AEDA delivered branded, locally sourced gift boxes to local industry leaders and officials, including the Augusta Commissioners and the mayor.
The project ultimately facilitated 24 potential projects for Richmond County with the potential of $1.59 billion in investment and 4,700 new jobs.
“We found that those relationships were bigger than just, you know, a name and a number and a CRM (custom relationship management),” said Eldridge. “We could build bigger things if we had partnerships, not just with our existing manufacturers, but also with other organizations in the county and the region to support economic development that way.”
This would not be the first time the Newnan, Ga. native has been courted by business development entities outside Richmond County. She stuck by AEDA out of a desire to stay close to home, which also inspired her to consider Columbia County.
“I really didn’t want to leave Richmond County,” she said. “ And it wasn’t until I had a couple of people that I really respect reach out to me and encouraged me to look at the job… Because I was enjoying working for [AEDA President] Cal [Wray], working with that team and, and furthering economic development in Richmond County. But getting to do that for the region was something that I was going to still be able to do in this new role.”
Eldridge earned her bachelor’s in public policy leadership from Ole Miss in 2017, a degree she sought to understand how and why policies were created. That knowledge, she says, equips her to evaluate various opportunities, projects and programs, their pros and cons, and discern what would prove advantageous to a community’s development.
“Because policy decisions are not easy, but they’re necessary,” she said. “I think that aligns really well with economic development and the type of decisions that we have to make. We’re trying to make changes that positively affect people’s lives.”
Eldridge is slated to begin her work with the DACC on March 4.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
