After 16 years in the position, Kent Rupert has resigned as team leader of Airdrie Economic Development to pursue a new opportunity as the executive director for Airdrie’s Blue Zone project, the first in Canada.
“It’s been a great 16 years with the City, leading up the Economic Development team and program,” he said.
Rupert’s final day with the City is Aug. 8, and he said leaving was bittersweet.
“I’ve worked with so many great people,” he said. “They all come to work everyday for the best interest of this community…. I’m certainly going to miss those people.”
Rupert began his time with the City of Airdrie in 2003 as an Economic Development Officer, and took over as team leader in 2004.
“At that time, there was myself and one other person,” he said. “We did communications, we did economic development, we sort of did it all.”
During Rupert’s tenure, the team grew, and he now calls it one of the best in the province. He said he is confident the team will continue to benefit the city.
“The team we have in place will carry on such great work moving forward,” Rupert said. “We have the 10-year economic strategy…that the Economic Development team are moving forward [with], and we just continue to get better with the data we collect [and] the services we’re able to give to businesses.”
Rupert said a succession plan to appoint his replacement is still being worked out.
Looking back on his time with the City, he said he’s been excited to see business growth in Airdrie keep pace with residential growth.
“Certainly, we’ve seen lots of residential growth and lots of changes within the community,” Rupert said. “We always talk about the residential growth, but we really don’t talk about how business growth has kept up to that. As the city grew with new houses, new condos and townhouses, we saw a lot of new commercial come in.”
Rupert also highlighted the business satisfaction survey and the SMARTstart program – which pairs entrepreneurs with established business mentors – as initiatives he is particularly proud of.
The department, under Rupert’s leadership, has also received acclaim and awards. Most recently, the team received an Award of Excellence during an Economic Developers Alberta ceremony in April for the creation of the Airdrie Economic Strategy.
In his new role, Rupert will oversee the local Blue Zone Project, with a goal of establishing Airdrie as Canada’s first Blue Zone and Canada’s healthiest community. He said he will officially begin in the position Sept. 1, and more information about the project will be released in the fall.
“For 16 years, my job has been sort of the health of the business community, and now I’m moving into a role where it’s the health of the entire community,” He said. “It’s really exciting to look at health differently – more of a proactive versus a reactive [approach] – and getting the entire community involved.”
