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Al Wenstrand
President
Florida's Great Northwest, Inc.
Al Wenstrand is the President of Florida's Great Northwest, a regional economic development organization representing the sixteen counties in northwest Florida.
In 1999, Al was appointed by Governor Mike Johanns to the cabinet level position of director of economic development for Nebraska. Prior to the appointment, he was the executive director of the Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation. Al's office was located in the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce where he and his staff worked in cooperation with the Omaha Chamber in a four-county, regional economic development effort.
Al served for five years as the chairman of the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, Nebraska's bonding, financing, and tax credit authority for housing, agriculture, manufacturing, medical, and community development endeavors. He also served on the board of directors as treasurer of the Applied Information Management Institute, a not-for-profit membership organization created by a consortium of business, education and government entities to support and promote business growth related to information technology. The AIM Institute focuses on emerging technologies and serves as a catalyst for facilitating the changes and improvements necessary to meet the information technology needs of Nebraska businesses and their employees.
Al received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska in 1973. In 1978, he received a Master of Education Degree, also from the University of Nebraska.
Prior to economic development work, Al was a teacher, including eleven years teaching marketing and coaching track and gymnastics at Bellevue West High School. In 1989, the Marketing Education Association named Al the National Marketing Educator of the Year.
