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Leland Speed
Legendary business leader brings his expertise of economic development to the Mississippi Development Authority

by SID SCOTT
DBJ Contributing Writer

One day you're living in the Carolina mountains working on your golf handicap, the next day you're in charge of Mississippi's economic future. It sounds like something from a Frank Capra movie to most people, but if you're Leland Speed, it's your life.

Gov. Haley Barbour named Speed one year-ago to be the state's new head of the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA). Speed, 72, took the job and immediately went to work with the kind of passion that has marked his career since 1958. It's this kind of passion, he said, that can take Mississippi to the next level in the economic development arena, once that passion catches fire in hearts of our government and business leaders.

"I'm very big on this idea of passion," says Speed. "Show me someone who is reasonably smart-they don't have to be a genius, but if they have a passion for what they are doing and they are tenacious, it's amazing how much you can accomplish."

The same goes for Mississippi in Speed's opinion. A visionary businessman/developer, he has served at the helm of more than 20 companies over his career. Today, he views the mission of promoting Mississippi to the world as being less like a job and more like the opportunity of a lifetime. To prove it, he even turned down the job's $152,000-a-year salary, preferring instead to turn his talents to service for the state he loves.

While it's certainly a bargain to get an accomplished businessman like Speed at no cost, for him the true deal for Mississippi came when voters in the state elected Governor Barbour.

"In Haley Barbour we have an incredible resource," says Speed. "This guy was the number one lobbyist in D.C., according to Fortune Magazine. If you just tried to go hire him full-time in his old capacity, you'd really have a state budget crisis. Here we get this guy for $122,000 and rent on an old house. He's the bargain."

For his part, Barbour has no second thoughts about Speed's ability to perform his new job. At the news conference announcing the appointment, the governor made his thoughts about Speed very clear.

"His extensive and successful business experience, as well as his long-time involvement in community affairs exemplifies the highest standard of excellence," says Barbour. "He is a Mississippi success story and an example of how Mississippians can make it to the top of their profession."

There's no doubt, however, that Speed's pedigree brings with it a wealth of knowledge, insight and savvy. After graduating from Georgia Tech with a degree in Industrial Management and serving in the Air Force, he went to Harvard Business School for his MBA. Then he returned to Jackson in 1958 to work for his father's securities firm.

From there, Speed traveled freely and quite successfully in the business world of securities and real estate, which is quite an accomplishment, considering how the two sides dislike each other.

"People in the securities business view people in the real estate business as a bunch of crooks," he says. "And the reverse is also there - people in real estate view the securities people as a bunch of idiots. I happened to be in both worlds, so it was a big opportunity for me."

The years of work, expertise and experience led to Speed becoming the founder and CEO of Parkway Properties and EastGroup Properties, both NYSE-listed companies and major players across the Southeast and the nation in commercial real estate. The companies are known for maximizing profit, minimizing risk and offering creative solutions to business and industrial space. In November, Morgan Stanley ranked more than 140 publicly traded real estate investment trusts and among them Parkway Properties ranked first and EastGroup Properties ranked fifteenth.

For the man who built these companies, Mississippi is sitting in a perfect spot to capitalize on its economic development potential. And one of the saving graces could be the fact that the state remains a state of small towns.

Speed points to a book by Jack Schultz called Boomtown U.S.A., which he sees as an exciting new trend spotting work that points to the success of the small towns in the country that get it right. When they do, success follows because of their size, not in spite of it. And when they get it right, they also benefit from what Schultz says is the third great trend in American demography.

"The first one was from the farm to the cities," says Speed. "The second one from cities to suburbs, both technology driven. Now a trend is developing from the cities and the towns to selected smaller communities with a high quality of life."

The book points out that in the last three years, one third of all new jobs have gone to areas of the country with five percent of the population, and 11 of the counties in that group are in Mississippi. As an example, Speed points to Oxford.

"The place is booming," he says. "They are getting $300 a square foot for single family residences around the Square. It proves that the new urbanism is not just some kind of theory. When people used to wonder: Is everyone going to move to Atlanta and Austin and Dallas? The answer is, no.''

Areas of the state such as Marshall, DeSoto and Tunica counties also will benefit over the coming years by being the places that businesses and families can move to avoid the city life.

"People want to live in walking communities and they will pay a premium for it," says Speed. "This is the old real estate guy in me. I can smell it."

Things are no different in the Delta. The potential here is just as strong, he says.

"Cleveland can be the same way, Greenwood can be exactly the same way. And Greenville the same and I mean it. Cleveland is right on the cusp of really becoming hot. You'll see more people walking down the street at night. You'll see more coffee shops, more restaurants. And the university will benefit from it, they will feed off each other. There are some amazing possibilities for the Delta."

This hopeful future for Mississippi's communities, combined with a positive outlook, makes Speed upbeat about the task ahead for his office and for the state in general. Demography is destiny and Mississippians have a lot to be optimistic about in the coming years.

"I'm just calling it like I see it," says Speed. "One of the things I hope I can contribute to is getting people in Mississippi to have a more positive attitude about themselves and their state, because I know what's possible. Times are really good right now. The national economy is improving, the world economy is improving. We need to strike now to capitalize on these trends."

In addition to his business accomplishments, Speed has been active in civic life. He served as Chairman of the Downtown Jackson Partners, Chairman of the Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of Goodwill Industries in Jackson, and Chairman of the United Way of the Capital Area. He currently serves as Chairman of the Jackson State University Development Foundation and as a member of the Board of Trustees of Mississippi College. DBJ