Economic Development 2024: JASON EL KOUBI

As VEDP’s leader since 2022, El Koubi oversees numerous initiatives designed to attract outside companies to locate in the commonwealth and to help Virginia businesses expand operations. He’s also responsible for growing economic awareness of Virginia globally, as evidenced by the Virginia trade office in Taiwan that VEDP opened in September 2023, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s meeting with Taiwan’s president at the time, Tsai Ing-wen, during an international trade mission.

El Koubi has been with VEDP since starting as executive vice president in 2017 under his predecessor, Stephen Moret. During his time at VEDP, El Koubi has played
key roles in landing major deals such as Amazon.com’s $2.5 billion HQ2 East Coast headquarters in Arlington County and Lego Group’s $1 billion manufacturing
campus under construction in Chesterfield County.

A graduate of Louisiana State University and the London School of Economics and Political Science, El Koubi previously led One Acadiana, the former Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in Louisiana, where he started a five-year, $15 million regional economic development program to expand businesses in the region. He also helped lead the Louisiana Economic Development organization to attract more than $28 billion in capital investment.