Jason El Koubi

President and CEO

Expertise at a glance

Serves as a senior advisor to companies evaluating Virginia, helping them navigate location strategy, business growth opportunities, and execution so they can make confident, well-informed investment decisions
Aligns state leadership and regional partners to provide companies with a unified, execution-ready platform built on speed, coordination, and certainty from evaluation through implementation
Leads VEDP’s vision, strategy, and operations, advancing a transformational growth agenda that strengthens Virginia’s competitiveness and expands opportunity across the Commonwealth

Get in touch with Jason

Jason El Koubi oversees Virginia’s strategic vision for economic development across the Commonwealth: creating opportunities for communities and companies alike to achieve long-term growth.

Jason serves as a senior advisor to companies making complex location and investment decisions. He works directly with corporate leaders and site selectors to navigate business growth opportunities and challenges, align stakeholders and prospective partners, and move projects forward with speed and certainty. Since becoming President and CEO, he has overseen more than 300 projects resulting in over 45,000 jobs and more than $90 billion in capital investment, including major investments from AstraZeneca, Avio, AWS, Eli Lilly, LEGO, LS Cable & System Ltd, Merck, Micron, and Wells Fargo, among others.

An expert in driving transformational growth through business investment, workforce strategy, and strategic partnerships

Jason brings a proven track record as an economic development dealmaker, shaped by leadership roles at both the state and regional levels, including serving as Assistant Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development and President and CEO of One Acadiana – a regional economic development organization.

His experiences span policy, strategy, and execution, enabling him to align government partners, businesses, and other stakeholders to deliver complex projects seamlessly. He combines those skills with a global perspective and credibility with international firms, as well as deep expertise in trade and logistics through his service on the Port of Virginia board. With board leadership spanning early childhood to higher education, Jason brings a long-term view and has placed talent development at the heart of Virginia’s economic development strategy, ensuring Virginia aligns education with economic opportunity while effectively navigating complex demographic and technological trends. With a background in engineering, he has an analytical approach that allows him to engage in the technical and operational aspects of business expansion and help companies move from strategy to successful execution.

Companies making major investment decisions need more than a location — they need a partner who can align stakeholders, reduce complexity, and deliver with certainty.