Britt Herrin is no stranger to the Mississippi Delta, and he is certainly no stranger to Sunflower County.
Earlier this month, Delta Strong Chairman Wade Litton announced Herrin as the organization’s new director of economic development.
“We are excited that Britt has joined the team at Delta Council, and he will immediately hit the ground running,” Litton, a businessman from Leflore County said in a statement. “Britt knows our region, he knows how to recruit and work with business, and he knows how to close deals.”
Raised in a farming family, Herrin is a native of Quitman County and a graduate of the former Delta Academy in Marks.
He attended the University of Mississippi, majoring in pubic administration.
After college, Herrin told The Enterprise-Tocsin that he worked on a number of political campaigns, including congressional and gubernatorial.
He knew that he was not going to be a lifer in politics, but he did develop in those roles the skillsets and the connections that helped him to smoothly transition to economic development.
“It’s very similar skillsets,” Herrin said. “There’s a little bit of PR (public relations), a little bit of strategy, a lot of research and communications is important. It was a good transition.”
Herrin said that he has always loved his home region, and he has always had a passion for wanting to help grow jobs here, but that became even more apparent three decades ago when a lot of jobs started to move out of the rural areas to overseas.
“It made me interested in doing something about it, saving communities and appreciating rural communities and trying to give them a fighting chance,” Herrin said. “That’s sort of what I’ve been doing for 35 years.”
Herrin’s first job in economic development was in Sunflower County in the 1990s. He spent seven years promoting business growth here before leaving for a similar role in McComb in Pike County.
“I appreciate the people of Sunflower County for giving me a start. I kind of learned on the job, and I had people who helped me learn,” Herrin said.
During his time in Sunflower County, Herrin worked alongside the folks at Delta Council. There was no Delta Strong at that time, but the organization was still heavily involved in economic development in the region.
“Delta Council has worked with Britt since he first came to Indianola after college, and continued to work with him as he was the leader of a regional partnership in Southwest Mississippi that worked with us in the Mississippi Delta,” said Bubba Simmons, president of Delta Council in a statement. “When we had the opportunity to hire him, we seized the opportunity.”
Herrin would spend two decades in Pike County, followed by a five-year stint in North Webster Parish in Louisiana and six years in his most recent role as economic developer in Tate County.
Herrin said that he had been approached by a colleague in his industry who suggested that he was the man who should be leading Delta Strong.
When he explored the opportunity, he realized that it was right up his alley, and that he not only had the skills to do the job, but it was a chance to make a difference in his home region.
Herrin joins an organization that has taken a more surgical approach to economic development in recent years, marketing to companies that seem to be a good fit for the region, and vice versa.
“That’s the formula that Delta Strong has developed, and I think it’s working, and I think it will continue to work,” he said. “They need somebody that can go out and knock on those doors and take that information and develop that into potential sites in the Delta for them to look at.”
Back in 2019, Delta Strong successfully helped to recruit Parmida LED Lighting Solutions to Indianola.
Herrin said that companies like Parmida can take advantage of Mississippi’s strong business climate.
“Even more so in the Mississippi Delta,” Herrin said. “The highway infrastructure is incredible. The port infrastructure, there’s good airports across the Delta, access to interstates is good. 69 coming through here will come even farther into the Delta. There are a lot of good things going that really promote economic development. I think the timing’s great.”
As the region battles issues like population decline and industry loss, Herrin says it’s more important than ever for everyone in the region to work together for common goals.
“We need to be innovative and it’s important, as a region, that the counties and the communities work together. There’s a strength in numbers,” he said.
Herrin is very familiar with most of the Delta’s counties and their assets, but he said he is always available to talk to anyone about sites or prospects he may not be aware of.
“We want to attract good companies that will create good jobs. We want those jobs and companies to be stable and to contribute to the communities they are in and be good employers,” he said.
Herrin and his wife Darla, who works for Hilton in Memphis, plan to reside in Greenville. They have two daughters and are proud grandparents.
