Leading The Way

Heidi Green heads the state's global commerce efforts.

by Carol Carter

July 1, 2008

H eidi Green took Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue on a trip - to Korea. Well, ok, it wasn't just Green and the governor. As deputy commissioner for global commerce at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Green's goal is to bring jobs - from foreign shores - to Georgia and to help Georgia businesses export their products and services overseas. She, the governor and others went on a trade mission.

Since that Korean mission, she says, "We've located more than 2,500 Korean suppliers here in Georgia. When you put Kumho - the Korean tire company that just broke ground for a plant in Macon - numbers on top of that, you're going to have more than 3,000 Korean supplier jobs in the last nine months."

Before Green and her team traveled to Korea with the governor, she says,"We did quite a bit of advertising with banners and ads in the [local Korean] business paper. Then the governor met with the Korean suppliers and hosted a dinner for them."

Theme for the dinner: "ComeTake a Closer Look at Georgia."

"After the dinner," she says, "we followed up with a gift for each one of them. All of the material we supplied and all of our marketing materials were written in Korean. We think that's a great way to really reach out and build those relationships."

On the export side of the equation, Green explains, the trade experts in Georgia's 10 international offices continually call on companies and go to trade shows.

"If they hear about a company that needs cotton gins, they let the office here know about it: 'Hey, we just had a meeting here with an agribusiness company that needs to acquire a whole bunch of cotton gins.' Then, we would send out an export alert to all of our small businesses that are looking or wanting to do export business and say, 'We have a company in Germany that is looking for cotton gins.'"

If a Georgia business owner is considering getting into the export business, Green says, she should meet with one of the international trade specialists on her staff. "They will go through and take a look at the company. Not every company is suited for exporting.

They'll ask, 'What project are you offering? Are you ready to deal with the opportunities and challenges of international trade? 'Then, we will look at some good markets to target. We will add that company to our international trade database and that company's information will go out to our international offices. They will begin receiving international trade leads from our overseas offices."


Green, on the job for a year now, oversees a budget of $18 million and a team of 80 people. Before this job, she was Perdue's director of intergovernmental affairs and served as a senior advisor to the Governor on issues such as economic development, transportation, water management and PeachCare. She began her career in intergovernmental affairs in Washington, D.C., in the office of Congressman BillThomas (RCA) and later served in as the project director for the late Senator Paul Coverdell.