The West Virginia Entrepreneurs Forum (WVEF) and the I-79 Strategic Planning Group will hire a shared director next month to help grow their respective organizations.

The new director will be responsible for helping to develop and implement a strategic plan for building on and growing an entrepreneurial culture in West Virginia. The director will also be charged with creating a plan for long-term sustainability of the WVEF and the I-79 Group, membership drives, fundraising, public relations, budgeting for the organizations, as well as providing leadership in the planning and staging of events centered on entrepreneurism in West Virginia.

“The WVEF currently represents a communications conduit to our entrepreneurial community through our local chapter networking activities and website infrastructure upgrades currently in progress,”said Jan Berkow, WVEF president.”We are counting on our new director to leverage these tools and apply an entrepreneurial passion to get West Virginia on theradar screenof future regional venture capital fairs.”

“Entrepreneur networks are the lifeblood of the new economy,”said Eric Lewis, principal at Walker Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in Shepherdstown.”The WVEF

and the I-79 Group are doing groundbreaking, important work for West Virginia. We need a person for this directorship who can take both of these organizations to the next level.”

The ideal applicant will possess the following characteristics: a track record in business management, a proven history in successfully creating and executing a strategic plan, strong private sector experience, a high energy self-starter, personable, with strong consensus-building and networking skills.

The salary will be commensurate with experience. A complete job description with application instructions is available on the WVEF website:http://www.WVEF.org. Applications should be sent via e-mail to jobs@wvef.org . The review of applications will begin August 15 and will continue until the position is filled.

The shared director will report to the boards of the WVEF and the I-79 Strategic Planning Group.

The new position has been created through funding by the Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Development Office and will be co-located in the West Virginia Development Offices regional office in Fairmont.

The WVEF is a non-profit corporation formed to promote the creation and growth of innovative and technology-oriented companies. The I-79 Strategic Planning Group is a non-profit corporation that focuses on economic growth intended to improve the quality of life in north-central West Virginia.