For years, Hampton Roads has been the runt of the litter when it comes to the economic growth of mid-sized regions in the United States.

While up-and-coming communities like Jacksonville, Florida, and Durham, North Carolina, add jobs, Hampton Roads remains stagnant. Jacksonville’s number of nonfarm payroll jobs grew 6.6% between February 2020 and November 2022, according to a report from the Old Dominion University Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. During the same time period, the Durham-Chapel region added 5.4% more jobs. But Hampton Roads lost 1.1% of its jobs.

A new economic think tank comprised of some familiar faces hopes to reverse those trends and make the region competitive with its peers.

The Hampton Roads Business Roundtable and Reinvent Hampton Roads have merged to form the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable, a group of CEOs from the region’s largest employers and community leaders.

“This community has so much going for it,” said Dennis Matheis, president and CEO of Sentara Healthcare, and one of the two new co-chairs of the Executive Roundtable. He’s lived in Hampton Roads for five years and has noticed the region’s unique strengths during his time here.

Cliff Fleet, the CEO and president of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, is the organization’s other co-chair. The group intentionally chose two leaders from both sides of the water as a nod toward the goals of regionalism and collaboration.

“Our region has a unique array of assets and opportunities, a true competitive advantage,” Nancy Grden, the new organization’s president and CEO, said in an announcement. “Aligning and focusing the strategy, advocacy and initiatives through these organizations and others will catalyze our growth for the future.”

Efficiency is one of the main reasons for the merger, Matheis said. The former organizations had many of the same members and goals and also were receiving funding from similar sources. Now, the new group will be able to more effectively fund key projects.

Doug Smith, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Alliance, said his economic development agency has worked with both groups extensively in the past.He shares an office building with staff members of the new organization.

The Executive Roundtable will set the agenda for regional economic development, especially from private companies, Smith said. The alliance will then help implement that agenda.

Reinvent Hampton Roads was founded in 2016 and is tasked with creating more higher-paying jobs and promoting entrepreneurship, according to the announcement. It also doles out economic development grants from the statewide GO (Growth & Opportunity) Virginia program.

The GO Virginia program is still active and healthy, Grden said, and the Executive Roundtable will continue to coordinate those grants. The program has received around $30 million in funding each year from the General Assembly, she said. It could receive even more funding, pending the result of ongoing state budget negotiations, she added.

The Hampton Roads Business Roundtable formed in 2012 originally with the intent of pushing for more state transportation funding, according to previous Virginian-Pilot reporting. In 2013, former Daily Press publisher Digby Solomon described the organization as “a small and focused group of top policymakers who can set and execute key priorities, such as improving transportation, and coordinate the work of other entities.”

At the time, Solomon and other stakeholders chose to dissolve a larger progenitor group, the Hampton Roads Partnership, because many of its functions could be accomplished by the smaller group of CEOs and area leaders.

The new group is looking at several new projects to support, Grden said. One example she gave is an effort to expand Jefferson Lab, the particle accelerator facility in Newport News, with more high performance data computing facilities. In the long term, she said the group will aim to leverage assets like the Navy, the port and shipbuilding toward economic development.

Attracting new talent and keeping young people in Hampton Roads is another goal, Matheis said. It’s something Sentara is also working on.

“We’re competing for talent nationally,” Matheis said. “And so being able to help develop the right types of talent and attract them into this region is incredibly important to Sentara’s long-term future as it is for every other employer in this region.”

The group is also looking to recruit new members from area businesses, including smaller, growing companies, as well as colleges and universities, which Grden said will play a role in helping retain local talent.

Several other economic development organizations will also have representation on the Executive Roundtable through a new group called the Regional Organizations Presidents Council. That group will include leaders from both area chambers of commerce, the alliance, the Hampton Roads Workforce Council and the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, among others.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com