JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Leland R. Speed, a prominent Mississippi businessman who twice served as the state’s economic development director, died Wednesday at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Speed died of complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease, his son Warren Speed told WLBT-TV. Speed was in his late 80s.
Speed was founder and chairman of Parkway Properties Inc. and EastGroup Properties Inc. Both companies manage real estate holdings in several states.
In 2004, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour chose Speed as executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. Speed served through the end of 2016, taking a state salary of $1 a year. At the end of Barbour’s second term, he brought Speed back as MDA director from March 2011 to January 2012.
“Leland was the guy who had a vision about what Mississippi could be,” Barbour told WLBT. “He tried to help smaller towns learn how they could be successful in economic development. One of his principal focuses (was) how to teach towns of 15,000 or less that they could attract industries too.”
Speed was chairman of the board for EastGroup Properties from 1983 to December 2015 and had been a director since 1978, the Mississippi Business Journal reported. He was chief executive officer of both EastGroup and Parkway Properties until 1997, and was chairman of the board of Parkway from 1980 until 2011.
“My goal was to assemble a company that would someday reach $100 million in assets. Today, our assets are at $3 billion,” Speed told the Beacon, a magazine published by Mississippi College, in 2016.
Speed was a frequent donor to Republican candidates.
GOP U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said in a statement Wednesday that Speed was one of Mississippi’s “preeminent citizens.”
“As a leader in business and government, he demonstrated the highest commitment to civic duty and the advancement of our state and country,” Wicker said. “His advocacy for the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) was the inspiration for the JROTC Act, which has expanded opportunity for thousands of young Americans.”
Lou Gehrig’s disease, formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body.
Speed was a member of the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame. He served as chairman of the Jackson State University Development Foundation and chairman of board of trustees at the private Mississippi College.
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