Mon Valley Alliance selects CEO

August 31, 2016

Five months after its formation, Mon Valley Alliance has a chief executive officer.

The MVA board announced Tuesday Christopher Whitlatch will begin serving in that capacity in mid-September. He has more than two decades of nonprofit and corporate experience, including the past seven years as director of digital initiations/communications with the Pittsburgh Foundation.

Whitlatch was a unanimous selection of the board of directors. He was chosen from among more than 40 candidates, including Joe Kirk, executive director of the Mon Valley Progress Council, and Lue Ann Pawlick, who had the same position with the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association.

Those economic development groups, dating to the mid-1960s, merged April 1 to form MVA.

Whitlatch will be involved initially with outlining MVA strategies, developing a new website and becoming acclimated to the Valley.

Five seats on the 15-member board still have to be filled. Candidates should contact board chairman John Easoz at jeasoz@comcast.net.

Ten board members were selected in the spring: Easoz; John LaCarte (vice chairman); Mike Thornton (treasurer); Tim Urda (secretary); Bob Burke; Bill Lee; Ed Mendola; Randy Patterson; Louis Quarto; and John Swallow.