Bob Rolfe To Be Tennessee Economic Development Boss
Gov. Bill Haslam tapped Nashville business exec Bob Rolfe as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. He replaces Randy Boyd, who left the ECD earlier this month to return to the private sector.
Rolfe, 56, has more than three decades of experience in business and investment banking in Tennessee, and joins the administration on March 1. Until this week, he was chairman and CEO of Medical Reimbursements of America.
Boston-based private equity firm Riverside Partners recently acquired MRA, a Franklin company that provides specialty reimbursement systems for more than 500 hospitals and health systems. Among other things, Rolfe led the development of the first system dedicated to the resolution of complex accident claims. As a result of the acquisition, he resigned his executive position at MRA, but remains on the board of directors.
In 2011, Rolfe co-founded West End Holdings, a Nashville-based private equity partnership that acquires and manages underperforming companies, aiming to transform their performance. He spent the first 18 years of his career as an investment banker at J.C. Bradford & Co.
Outgoing commissioner Boyd oversaw a number of economic development wins for the state during his tenure, totaling $11B in capital investment during the last two years.
