California Recruiter Replaced

Spokane’s California business recruiter has been replaced by the former top salesman for Key Tronic Corp., officials said Tuesday.

Tom Burns, Key Tronic’s former director of sales to original equipment manufacturers, has joined the Spokane Area Economic Development Council to direct California business recruitment efforts.

He replaces Chuck Paskerian, an Orange County man who in early 1993 became the EDC’s first California-based recruiter.

Paskerian, whose office cost $102,000 annually to operate, landed two California companies for Spokane in 1994, half the goal set by the EDC.

“We had higher expectations,” said EDC President Bob Cooper. “We should have been more successful there.”

The change in recruiters also has triggered a restructuring of how Spokane recruits companies from California, a state suffering from a reputation for high costs and overregulation.

Burns will be stationed in Spokane - not Southern California - and will woo companies throughout the Golden State, not just around Los Angeles, Cooper said.

The change will save EDC members, including city and county taxpayers, $8,000, Cooper said. It also ensures better screening of companies desired by Spokane.

With years of experience in high technology sales, the 58-year-old Burns has the connections to get an edge on other cities recruiting California companies, Cooper said.

Burns’ goal is to lure four California companies this year, Cooper said. The EDC hopes to recruit a total of 18 companies and 500 jobs in 1995.

At Key Tronic, Burns was charged with overseeing the largest sales division at the Spokane-based company. He left the company in November.

Burns also has worked for International Business Machines Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp.

He said Tuesday that eight recruitment trips to California cities have been scheduled for 1995.

Prospects include companies seeking a site for customer-service centers similar to one opened earlier this year in the Spokane Valley by Egghead Software.

“Given the fires, floods and pestilence in California, there’s still plenty of businesses looking north,” Burns said. “I think I can tell our story fairly effectively.”