For nearly a decade, J. Randy Jackson has been the public face of Kia Motors in Georgia, a $1 billion auto plant that created thousands of jobs and saved a working-class border community from economic ruin.
On Saturday, west Georgia was reeling from Jackson’s abrupt death on an airliner bound for South Korea, where Kia is headquartered. The auto plant’s chief administrator died doing what he’s best known for — advocating for Georgians’ jobs.
“This is obviously a tough time for us all,” former West Point Mayor Drew Ferguson said. “We’re going to have to pull together to get through this transition.”
Among Jackson’s biggest admirers was former Gov. Sonny Perdue. Landing Kia was one of the bright spots of Perdue’s tenure.
“We will miss him,” the ex-governor said of Jackson in a written statement, “but his legacy will continue to live on as long as Kia is building cars and employing Georgians.”
Jackson, 59, of Opelika, Ala., near West Point at the state line, was headed off on a trade mission Friday, traveling with officials from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, including Commissioner Chris Carr.
Gov. Nathan Deal’s chief of staff, Chris Riley, was in the delegation, too.
The party landed in Seattle to change planes. While re-boarding, Jackson collapsed, possibly from a heart attack, according to Jane Fryer, executive director of the Meriwether County Industrial Development Authority. Emergency personnel spent about 45 minutes trying to revive him.
Fryer said she has spoken with Jackson’s executive assistant, who told her about the death.
“I think everybody’s in shock right now and disbelief,” said Fryer, who has worked with Jackson ever since Kia hired him as the plant’s first American employee in 2007.
In the mid-2000s, West Point was just another dying city in flyover country, drained of life by a rash of textile plant closings. Then the Koreans came, and everything changed.
Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia has since become a massive engine in the state economy, employing more than 3,000 people with three production shifts. The plant builds the Sorento CUV and the Optima mid-size sedan.
Suppliers brought thousands more jobs to Georgia and Alabama. New hotels and restaurants sprang up, along with a Wal-Mart distribution center and a branch campus of Columbus State University.
Jackson wasn’t involved in recruiting Kia to Georgia, which took tense negotiations and hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives. But as the plant’s vice president of human resources and administration, he helped keep the plant here by cultivating a workforce, managing growth and serving as a liaison to both foreign investors and the state government.
“Randy was all business,” said Craig Lesser, who was the state’s Department of Economic Development commissioner during the negotiations. “And he was all Kia, and he was constantly promoting its success.”
Jackson served as Kia’s public spokesman, speaking at meetings, handing out donations and partnering with the THINC College and Career Academy charter school, which received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company. This year, Kia named Jackson chief administrative officer, just as the plant was rolling out its 2 millionth vehicle.
“It took a team of dedicated Georgians working together to make the Kia plant in West Point successful,” Perdue said in his statement, “and Randy Jackson was a terrific leader and representative for the company. Randy played a key role in hiring thousands of employees leading to Kia transforming the economy of west Georgia.”
A Macon native, Jackson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia, according to the Kia website. He had a master’s degree from Century University and a law degree from UCLA.
Jackson worked for Toyota in Kentucky, then for Mercedes-Benz in Alabama, before joining Kia.
Funeral arrangements had not been announced Saturday evening.
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