Bob Higgins Bio
Bob Higgins has operated Higgins and Associates since founding
it in 2001. The firm was initially formed to produce commercial web
sites for real estate and vacation rental companies. More recently, its
scope expanded to take advantage of Bob's years of economic development
experience to include helping companies and communities address common
problems and opportunities such as workforce development.
In 2016 and 2017, Higgins & Associates was a subcontractor to
Thompson Engineering to help them develop a new Weeks Bay Watershed
Management Plan. Bob's role in this was to get strong stakeholder
involvement from the county, 9 municipalities, the business community
(developers, farmers, chambers), homeowners, and environmental leaders.
This was very successful with building regulation updates, the formation
of an ongoing multi-city "Planners/Future Growth" committee, and strong
commitment from the stakeholders to support funding for an
implementation manager for all of the county's watershed management
plans.
From 2002 – 2012, Bob was with the Baldwin County Economic
Development Alliance, for the last few years as its Senior Vice
President. The Alliance represents the 5 chambers, 8 industrial
development boards, 14 cities, the county commission, and over 130
businesses in fast growing Baldwin County, Alabama. In this position, he
managed the Alliance's existing business and workforce development
activities. He also managed the Baldwin County Business Incubator, its
revolving loan fund, and its angel capital network.
A few highlights from his time at the
Alliance:
- Bob set up and managed a virtual business incubator in tight
partnership with the five chambers of commerce in the county. This
allowed startup companies to receive many of the services they would
receive in a physical incubator while operating out of commercially
available spaces. A spin-off from this was a very active angel
investor group which now operates across the Gulf Coast.
- When housing prices became so high in 2006 that companies could
not find employees who could afford to live in the area, Bob led a
countywide group to address the problem. The initial approach was to
highlight the business opportunity to national multi-family housing
developers. This resulted in the county being listed by USAToday
as one of its "tracking counties" and being featured in other
national publications. This in turn resulted in hundreds of more
affordable single and multi-family homes being built in the area.
- A very serious issue facing many employers throughout southwest
Alabama – and much of the country – is the lack of qualified job
applicants. Bob chaired a group of 40 of the largest employers in
our eight county region who agreed to take on this issue. They
formed the Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council
to approach this as a supply chain management opportunity: Define
"demand" (the number of people with what skills are needed) and
align the "supply" chain (schools, colleges, career one-stop
centers, and so forth) to meet that need. This employer-led effort
has been well received by the education community. It was widely
recognized as the best in the state and as one of the best in the
country.
- Over 40% of the economy in Baldwin County comes from 8 million
tourists spending about $6 billion on its beaches each year. In
2010, the BP Oil Spill caused many of the summer visitors not to
come, creating a huge negative ripple throughout the economy. At the
request of the two chambers of commerce in south Baldwin and the
cities of Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Foley, Bob chaired the
Coastal Resiliency Coalition throughout the crisis. The CRC
consolidated federal, state, and local business resources in one
place and heavily promoted its use to the business community. The
CRC also helped coordinate the overall interaction of the business
community with BP and federal and state agencies. The CRC team
includes the chambers, the mayors of the three cities, tourism
officials, state mental health, and the local community college.
It's approach has been nationally recognized as a "best practice"
that should be replicated by other communities. The CRC continues to
meet monthly, now focusing on helping make the business community
more resilient to better survive future disasters.
Bob came to Baldwin County in 2001 from General Motors' Buick Motor
Division. At Buick, he was responsible for developing future vehicles
and bringing them to market. At various times, he was responsible for
the Regal, LaCrosse, Riviera, Park Avenue, and LeSabre. The quality and
profitability of these Buick products are one of the reasons why this
brand survived the restructuring of GM. Prior to that, he managed the
business and technical relationship between GM and several of its
largest suppliers.
He earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Kettering University.
He is a graduate of the Auburn University Intensive Economic Development
Course, the Center for Creative Leadership, the Crosby
Quality College, Battelle Institute, and several others
over his career.
Current memberships:
- Coastal Resiliency Coalition, Inc (Chair)
- Tricity Community Foundation (Advisory Council member)
- Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church: Finance and Liturgy
Committees (Chair)
- United Bank Community Development Advisory Board
Past memberships:
- Career & Technical Education Advisory Council to the State
Department of Education (Chair)
- Southwest Alabama Workforce Development Council (Founding Chair)
- South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce (Board Member)
- Community Foundation of South Alabama (Chair)
- State CTE Commission member
- Alabama State Workforce Investment Board
- Alabama 65 County Workforce Development Board
- Business, Marketing, Finance, and IT Business Advisory
Council to the Alabama Dept of Education (Chair)
- Alabama FBLA/PBL Foundation (Chair)
- Baldwin County Education Coalition (Founding Board Member)
- Economic Development Association of Alabama
- Southern Economic Development Council
- Envision Coastal Alabama
- National Business Incubator Association
- Economic Development Chair of Region 8 of the governor's Rural
Action Council
- Baldwin County Public Transit Coalition
- Optimist Club of Gulf Shores (President)
- Baldwin Housing Alliance (Founding Board Member)
- The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center (Board Member)
- Harbour Place COA, Orange Beach (President)
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