Haverhill, MA –  Northern Essex Community College’s new Director of Corporate and Community Education, Alex Rodriguez of Melrose, Massachusetts, has experience as a business professor, economic development strategist, and marketer for software companies.

A Texas native, Rodriguez has been teaching strategy and marketing at local colleges, including Lesley University, UMass Boston, and Newbury College for the past seven years.

He previously worked for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a Boston economic development organization founded by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter that focuses on driving economic growth within distressed urban communities.  At ICIC, Rodriguez ran the Inner City 100, the organization’s flagship program that recognizes the 100 fastest-growing inner city firms in the United States and provides them with the necessary management education resources to help their CEO’s continue to grow their firms. Under his leadership, Rodriguez consistently grew ICIC’s network of new firms and partner organizations to include Members of Congress, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, chambers of commerce, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Women Business Owners.

He also worked in various marketing and business development roles for software companies.

Rodriguez joined the college in September and will be responsible for leading and driving education and training programs for corporate and community audiences.

“Alex has the perfect combination of skills and experience,” says Allison Dolan-Wilson, Northern Essex’s vice president of institutional advancement. “He understands the academic environment and has worked very successfully with business and nonprofit partners to build workforce development training programs with results.”

Rodriguez says he is looking forward to bringing together his nonprofit, academic, and private sector experience in this new role. “I miss the hands-on experience of being a true practitioner and cannot wait to bring my background to augment the center’s profound strengths.”

His first step will be to work closely with employers and community leaders to assess the college’s current programs and make sure they’re meeting community needs.

“The goal is to leverage the college’s and local community’s natural assets to assist in creating truly equitable upward economic mobility for more local residents,” he says.

Rodriguez has a bachelor’s in political science and an MBA from Texas Christian University and is a candidate for a Doctorate in Business Administration specializing in higher education marketing and strategy at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.  The son of an immigrant from Juarez, Mexico, Rodriguez says he “is a product of the Houston oil patch” as his grandfather worked in a Shell Oil refinery, and both his parents practiced law in the energy sector.  Rodriguez moved to New England 12 years ago with his wife, Katie, a New Hampshire native. The couple has two children, Charlie, 5, and Sam, 2.