Brice Wallace
Salt Lake Business Journal
Utah’s corporate recruitment and business services organization is looking for a new leader.
Ryan Starks, who had served as executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, has left the agency to pursue other professional endeavors.
GOEO provides resources and support for business creation, growth and recruitment. Its activities also include promoting tourism and film production in the state.
The search for a permanent executive director is underway. In the meantime, Gov. Spencer Cox has tabbed GOEO managing directors — Jim Grover, Kamron Dalton, Natalie Randall and Pete Codella — to lead the agency’s operations.
“It has been a profound honor to serve the people of Utah and work alongside such a dedicated and talented team,” Starks said. “I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished together, from supporting our rural communities to fostering a thriving startup environment. I am confident that GOEO and the state will continue to excel.”
“Ryan has been an invaluable asset to the state and our economic development efforts,” Cox said. “His nine years of public service demonstrate his deep commitment to Utah. We wish him the very best in his future pursuits.”
Starks became executive director in January 2023, succeeding Dan Hemmert, who had served since December 2020. Hemmert has since founded and is a partner at political strategy consulting firm Hemmco LLC.
At GOEO, Starks earlier served as managing director of growth and innovation, overseeing business expansion programs and partnerships, rural economic development, international trade and diplomacy, and Utah’s targeted industries initiative. He started as an intern at what was then called the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and later became a project coordinator before becoming a managing director.
His career has included work for the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C.; serving as a budget and policy analyst at the Utah Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget; serving as the executive director of the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce and economic development office in Wasatch County; and serving as the founding director of the Wasatch Center for Advanced Professional Studies. He also taught as an adjunct professor of management for 10 years in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University.
Starks earned a bachelor’s degree from Weber State University, where he served as student body president, and a Master of Public Administration degree from BYU. He later earned a certificate in economic development from the University of Oklahoma and completed the entrepreneurship and innovation program at Harvard University.
“It’s been a wonderful experience for me to just see things through different lenses — at the state level, at the local level, at the county level and to come full circle, from an intern to executive director [at GOEO]. It’s just such a blessing to me,” Starks said on GOEO’s “Business Elevated” podcast.
During his time as executive director, GOEO incentivized 41 companies on Utah projects expected to create a total of 13,646 high-paying jobs and involve companies’ capital investment of $16.3 billion. The projects included an expansion of Texas Instruments, whose $11 billion investment in Utah is the largest in state history, and the company later committed to a $3 billion investment in the state.
Starks also worked to expand economic opportunities in rural parts of Utah through the Rural Economic Development Tax Increment Financing (REDTIF) program. He said the number of companies considering rural Utah for projects is “just off the charts.”
Starks further worked to establish the Startup State Initiative to bolster Utah’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and he fostered global trade opportunities for Utah companies by helping lead trade missions to Canada, Dubai, France, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico and the U.K.
“I just hear this again and again from companies across the spectrum: ‘Utah is such a great place to do business,’” he said on the podcast. “Our regulatory environment, our low taxes, our ‘get it done’ attitude, and just the collaborative mentality that we have, is really special.”
Starks is a member of a prominent family in Utah. Brother Steve Starks is the chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of the Larry H. Miller Co. Another brother, Aaron Starks, is president and CEO of 47G, Utah’s aerospace and defense association.