Indiana’s business-recruitment agency will get its third president in less than two years when Mitch Frazier takes over the Indiana Economic Development Corp. on Oct. 5. Gov. Mike Braun’s office announced the appointment Thursday as current president Josh Richardson prepares to leave for a private-sector position after about 11 months.
Frazier is president of IBJ Media, publisher of the Indianapolis Business Journal and Indiana Lawyer. He previously led AgriNovus Indiana, a nonprofit focused on the state’s agbioscience sector, and Reynolds Farm Equipment. He also worked as the IEDC’s media-relations director during former Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration. The current leadership announcement says Frazier will report to Commerce Secretary Chuck Goodrich.
The change matters beyond personnel. IEDC recruits businesses, assembles incentive packages and helps shape how Indiana competes for investment. Frazier will arrive while the Braun administration is still reorganizing the state’s commerce structure and while lawmakers and the public continue to scrutinize the agency’s governance and spending.
A leadership structure still settling
Braun entered office in January 2025 with David Adams serving as both commerce secretary and IEDC president. The General Assembly later required those positions to be separated. Richardson, then commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development, became IEDC president in October 2025; the appointment completed that statutory split. Adams left the commerce-secretary post in June, and Braun named Goodrich in July.
Goodrich now oversees a broader commerce group that includes IEDC, the Indiana Destination Development Corp., the Department of Workforce Development and other entities. At his introductory news conference, he said the administration’s priorities were growing talent, businesses and Indiana. He also said he would remain chief executive of Gaylor Electric while serving as commerce secretary, with screening procedures at both the company and the state to manage conflicts, according to Indiana Capital Chronicle’s account.
Frazier’s appointment therefore places day-to-day IEDC management under a commerce secretary whose portfolio extends well beyond business incentives. The division of responsibility is now clearer on paper: Goodrich sets the administration’s commerce direction, while Frazier will run the economic-development corporation and its business-recruitment work.
The immediate operational questions are continuity and disclosure. Companies negotiating with IEDC, local economic-development groups and regional partners will need to know whether existing incentive discussions and project timelines change during the transition. The agency maintains a public portal for programs, board information and economic-development resources, giving the administration a ready place to publish updated responsibilities, meeting materials and performance information.
Richardson’s short tenure does not establish that projects will be disrupted, and the governor’s announcement did not identify a policy reversal. But three presidents since early 2025 make leadership stability a consequential test for Frazier. His first months will show whether the latest appointment completes the restructuring or begins another phase of it.
