Brad Buening has been hired as Ripley County’s Economic Development Corporation’s new director with his starting date set for October 2.

A 1991 graduate of Ball State University, Buening holds two bachelor degrees - Environmental Design and Urban and City Planning. He also has a strong concentration in economics, according to information from the Economic Development Corporation.

Buening comes to Ripley County from a Land Use Specialist position at Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc. Before that he served Wells County as the Director of the Area Plan Commission since 1997 and as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Project Manager since 2000.

Bringing experience to the job, Buening has worked in local government for 15 years in the planning field. He has worked with many government officials at both the state and local level.

Buening was a GIS speaker at a three-state conference in Indianapolis and also spoke at a national convention in Chicago. Information from the Economic Development Corporation notes that he has training and certificates in various GIS applications and versions of software. He is a member of the INGISI, Indiana GIS Initiative, specifically sitting on the Standards and Recommendation Committee and chairing the Legislative Committee.

In Wells County, Buening served locally on an Economic Development Committee as well as regionally on the Advisory Board for Region Three in Northeast Indiana for the Indiana Department of Commerce.

Buening notes that he looks forward to “pulling all of the local resources together and combining the GIS data in Ripley County to move forward in a positive direction.”

DeeDee Benkie served as Interim Economic Director while the Ripley County Economic Development Board searched for someone to fill the position permanently. She is excited about the future of Ripley County's economic growth and looks forward to continuing to serve on the ED Board of Directors.