NATCHEZ &8212; After six months without a leader, economic development in Natchez has a new boss.

Jefferson C. &8220;Jeff&8221; Rowell, 30-year-old director of the Pontotoc Chamber of Commerce, will start as executive director of the Natchez-Adams Economic Development Authority Jan. 1. The EDA has been without a director since June, when Michael Ferdinand resigned.

Rowell, who graduated from the University of Alabama with a commerce and business administration degree in 2000, has been chamber director in the northeast Mississippi town of Pontotoc since November 2004. During Rowell&8217;s time in Pontotoc, the chamber has helped land expansions to four furniture plants.

The closing of International Paper, Johns Manville, Titan Tire and other industries in recent years has resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in the Miss-Lou. But Rowell said he believes there&8217;s potential to grow the economy again.

In addition to a ready workforce, &8220;there&8217;s the port, the airport, just the history and culture you have here,&8221; Rowell said. When it comes to attracting people and industry, he added, &8220;You have everything you need here.&8221; But he said he can&8217;t do it alone &8212; and will be asking the community for its help.

EDA board Chairman Woody Allen said Rowell&8217;s references and the projects he&8217;s helped land in Pontotoc helped make Rowell the board&8217;s choice of three interviewees. In addition, he said, the questions Rowell asked the board during the interview showed he had done his homework.

Allen also said he thinks that, if anything, Rowell&8217;s age will be a positive. &8220;In the business world, that can be a plus, because (today&8217;s executives) can relate to someone who&8217;s younger, more aggressive,&8221; Allen said.

In any case Allen, who has temporarily taken over many of the director&8217;s duties, said board members have the knowledge and contacts to assist Rowell while he gets his bearings. And he added, &8220;we have good support on the state level.&8221;

While other EDA board members couldn&8217;t be reached for comment Monday, member Leon Crawford said Rowell&8217;s interview impressed the board.

Other finalists for the position included Chandler Russ, a Natchez native and former Brookhaven EDA director who now heads economic development in Mississippi for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Neither Russ nor Allen would comment on Russ&8217; candidacy for the position.

Rowell&8217;s previous experience included serving as chief operating officer for environmental services firm CBS in Alabama.

He also spent a year learning Portuguese and helping train business executives in Brazil, the third-largest U.S. trade partner in the Western Hemisphere.

The four furniture related projects with the Pontotoc chamber included:

4A 150,000-square-foot addition to the American Furniture Manufacturing plant.

4A 120,000-square-foot addition to the Ashley Furniture plant.

4The location of a new Oxford Furniture facility in Pontotoc.

4The consolidation of production of two ITW Paslode furniture brands in Pontotoc.

In addition, the chamber is now assisting furniture company Pontotoc Spring in an expansion of its plant, which will result in 20 more jobs.

The chamber and the Pontotoc Electric Power Association are also working to develop software to organize and analyze industrial information.

That&8217;s in addition to having a hand in several community development projects. Those range from working to locate funding for a sports complex to working with the nonprofit CREATE Foundation of Tupelo to create an endowment to provide seed money for community projects.

Rowell played college football for the University of Alabama.