A new leadership structure, including the first new president since 2014, will take the reins of the Economic Development Council (EDC) of St. Lucie County by the start of next year.
Pete Tesch, the council president since 2014, will step down Jan. 1 after a 12-year term and a 38-year career in business development, according to a Dec. 9 release. Wesley McCurry, the council vice president since November 2022, will replace Tesch.
The EDC will appoint Rachel Savela, their director of investor engagement, as their first-ever chief operating officer, the release added. Savela has worked with the council since April 2022.
In addition, EDC board of directors Chair Azlina Goldstein will step down upon the expiration of her two-year term. She will be succeeded by Robert Barfield, a Seacoast Bank executive who served as council treasurer.
Tesch will continue to work with the council and the associated Treasure Coast Center for Economic and Educational Development nonprofit (founded 2023) in an advisory capacity, the release said. It added that he will “support a funds development campaign for both organizations.”
Tesch, 68, served as president for nearly half of the 25-year history of the EDC. His term began during the economic uncertainties of the 2007-08 housing crash; by then, he had been president of the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Corporation from 1997 to 2012.
According to the release, the county sustained a 53 percent “erasure” of its property values and an 8.6 percent unemployment rate when Tesch began his presidency with the St. Lucie EDC in 2014.
The council supervised many recoups and expansions under Tesch, the release said. St. Lucie property values tripled from $23.8 billion in 2014 to $74.4 billion today.
The county workforce added 85 “business expansions and relocations” across 16.5 million square feet of “new development” that supported over 24,000 salaried jobs between 2014-24, the release said.
County unemployment rates also dropped from 8.6 percent to values “in line with national trends” between 2014-25, the release added.
(The national civilian unemployment rate reached a post-COVID high of 4.6 percent in November 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
The EDC “has accomplished so much in strengthening our region’s economy and partnerships,” Goldstein said of Tesch’s term in the release. “I’m grateful for his vision.”
With McCurry now at the helm, the EDC will continue “to attract high-wage industries, strengthen our workforce pipeline, and support (county) businesses,” McCurry said in the release.
McCurry, along with his council contributions, worked as Port St. Lucie community development director and president of the Tradition Development Company to oversee new initiatives in communities west of Interstate 95.
Residential and commercial properties – from high-volume retailers to high-tech medical research – have since taken up residence across approximately 8,200 acres of “dying” citrus fields throughout the Southern Grove Jobs Corridor under McCurry’s leadership, the release said.
Savela previously had a 17-year career as an educator in the St. Lucie Public School system. The COO position arose through “a natural progression” after the council “mindfully” grew after the COVID pandemic, said communications director Maureen Saltzer.
Savela “will be responsible for business operations” between the EDC and Center for Economic and Educational Development, Saltzer added. “As a former teacher, she has a lot of insight into some of the programs we work with St. Lucie Public Schools on.”