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New Commerce chief expected to kick up a little dust

While Tony Preite, the incoming head of the Montana Commerce Department, has been making the usual circumspect comments expected of a new government appointee – "We want the maximum from the resources we have" – the people who’ve worked with him over the years expect his feet to kick up a lot of dust.

By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/12/03/news/mtregional/news07.txt

As head of the Havre-based Bear Paw Development Corp. between 1969 and 1993, he built a "mom and pop" operation into a model economic development force, said longtime Bear Paw board member Art Kleinjan.

As head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s development office in Montana from 1993 to 1999, he aggressively reorganized the Bozeman office, cutting staff from 89 to 57 while more than quadrupling the funding funneled to Montana – from
$25.2 million to $123.7 million, said Robert Leigland of USDA Rural Development.

Preite’s reputation is that he works hard. He sets goals and attains them and brings everyone to the table, said Dick King, head of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. King worked under Preite for many years at Bear Paw and admires his tenacity.

Preite’s record gives weight to what might otherwise seem like light comments.

"Job growth and economic development starts locally," he said.

He will be the first Commerce Department head with local economic development experience, King said.

"I’ve tried to be inclusive. We’re going to bring everyone to the table," Preite said.

At Bear Paw and later, he had a solid record of working with tribal governments on economic development.

"First, we’ll make resources available to local organizations," Preite said. He added that resources means money and other aid for the "Kings and John Kramers (head of the Great Falls Development Corp.)" and their counterparts across the state.

Preite said he and Schweitzer want to play a "major role in attracting out-of-state industry to Montana."

But again, he said, it all begins at the local level.

"The focus is going to be what I’ve tried to do in all my positions: martial and maximize resources, take what we have and utilize it to the best of our abilities," he said.

Preite talked about value-added agriculture and the prospects for hydrogen and coal energy development.

"As far as value-added, we need to spend more resources there and coordinate better to make that a reality," he said.

Preite was born in Havre, and is a former high school government teacher. He began his economic development career in 1968 at Bear Paw. Over the greater portion of the next two decades, Preite refocused and energized the organization, sought more resources and established a revolving loan fund to promote rural development, said Kleinjan, who called Preite the organization’s "founding father."

"This all came in baby steps. He didn’t say, ‘This is what I want it to be.’ He just built it day by day," Kleinjan said.

In 1993, Preite was appointed by President Clinton to be the Montana head of the Farmers Home Administration, later renamed USDA Rural Development. In his six years at the helm, he expanded the program’s reach by "dragging" administrators across the state to places such as "Glasgow and Thompson Falls," King said.

Leigland, head of Rural Development, described Preite’s tenure there a little differently.

"He was very instrumental in pushing numbers. He knows economic development. No question, he did more with less," Leigland said.

In 1999, Preite was selected as the Denver-based regional director of U.S. Economic Development Administration. The office oversees a 10-state region that includes Montana.

In 2003, Preite returned to work at the University of Montana as director of the offices of Space Commercialization and Economic Outreach.

"I’m very enthusiastic," Preite said about his new job.

He called Schweitzer’s energy "catchy and habit-forming. We’ll do the best job we can," he said.

Reporter Robert Struckman can be reached at 523-5262 or [email protected]

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