The Tacoma Economic Development Department (TEDD) has named Bob Levin from Rockford, Ill., as its first manager of the new Private Capital Division. Levin will lead a group of six employees in the division. The new group will focus on helping developers, business owners and investors as they relocate their businesses to Tacoma or expand their current businesses in the city.

Levin will leave his current position as president of the Rockford Area Economic Development Council on April 22. He will start work in Tacoma on May 2.

“Bob epitomizes what we’re trying to create in the new Private Capital Division,” said TEDD Director Ryan Petty. “He’s an economic developer who understands the art of problem solving and selling. He understands the relationship between economic development, quality of life, neighborhoods and the things that make a community attractive to investors as well as people.”

In addition to his most recent work with the Rockford Area Economic Development Council, Levin was the executive director of the Rockford Area Council of 100 for four years, and president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council in Vancouver, Wash., from 1988 through 1999.