MARKETING AGENCY CHIEF: NJ IS IN THE GAME
By Hugh R. Morley/The Record
July 23, 2012
* He says agency puts state “in the game.”
Bernard “Bernie” Flynn has been a New Jersey deputy attorney general, counsel to the state’s commissioner of insurance and a CEO.
Yet his latest job, as board chairman for Choose New Jersey, the non-profit organization charged with buffing the state’s image as a place to do business, could be his most challenging.
Flynn, whose day job is president and chief executive officer of West Trenton-based NJM Insurance Group, replaced the first Choose New Jersey chairman, Dennis Bone, president of Verizon New Jersey.
Flynn’s appointment came a few days after CNBC released its annual business-friendliness ranking, which found New Jersey’s climate had worsened to 41st best in 2011 from 30th.
Flynn takes the chairmanship of an agency created by Governor Christie in 2010 to market the state to the world. It’s funded by 15 companies that each contributed $450,000 over three years, and works closely with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the state’s business czar, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
The newly minted chairman took time to answer some questions from The Record:
