Sonoma County BEST Exceeds 1st Year Job-Growing Target

During its first year of implementation, Sonoma County BEST worked with 169 companies, responding to 306 Business Assistance Requests to help resolve issues preventing or slowing growth, and helped these companies create 841 jobs in Sonoma County.

“For a startup year, these results are pretty impressive. It’s been a busy year with lots of great success stories,” said Mike Purvis, chief administrative officer of Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa and chairman of the Board of Directors for Sonoma County BEST. Purvis was speaking from the first annual investor’s meeting for Sonoma County BEST Tuesday at the DoubleTree in Rohnert Park.

“This year was all about reaching out to our existing Sonoma County businesses to see how we could help them accelerate their success and grow their businesses. This is a key activity of economic development,” said Carolyn Stark, executive director of Sonoma County BEST. “This resulted in over 300 business assistance requests that led to job growth.”

In 2013, BEST will focus its efforts on five industry clusters, including advanced manufacturing and food manufacturing, that promise growth for the region and leverage Sonoma County’s unique strengths. For more details, see the Annual Report from Sonoma County BEST.

About Sonoma County BEST
Launched in 2011, the Sonoma County Building Economic Success Together (“BEST”) is a public-private partnership operating as a 501(c) 3 under the umbrella of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. Its purpose is to support business success and job growth in Sonoma County.