San Diego : Strobl to Quit Development Agency Post

Mac Strobl, who helped attract dozens of firms to San Diego while serving as the Economic Development Corp.’s No. 2 man for more than seven years, on Friday said he would leave EDC to become president of a new governmental consulting firm.

In July, Strobl, 39, will join T.C.S. Governmental Consultants, a division of T.C.S. Enterprises, where he will “assist companies that need to work professionally with the government.”

Since Strobl joined EDC in late 1977 as a governmental affairs specialist, the organization’s annual budget has grown from $387,000 its current $831,000.

Over that span, EDC has helped 45 companies relocate to San Diego and another 28 expand here.

Strobl said he will remain with EDC through June to help steer the group’s funding requests through the budgetary hearings of the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego and the San Diego Unified Port District.

The city this year contributed $340,000 to EDC, while the county gave the group $50,000 and the port district contributed $82,500.

Strobl said his decision to leave was made in the past month, after he was approached by Tom C. Stickel, chairman and chief executive of T.C.S. Enterprises

“This is a (business) opportunity for me,” said Strobl. “We’re talking about the need to provide some knowledge and expertise to deal with the government.”

A former director of the San Diego Taxpayers Assn., Strobl was appointed to the San Diego City Council in 1976 to serve the unexpired term of Seventh District Councilman Jim Ellis, who had been elected to the state Assembly.

When he was appointed, Strobl agreed not to run for the seat when his term expired.

Strobl served under three executive directors at EDC--Dick Davis, John Brown and Dan Pegg, the current director.

After each new opening, Strobl always emerged in his familiar No. 2 spot.

“Sometimes I suspect you’re too close to the trees to see the forest,” he commented on Friday when asked why the top job had eluded him. “I was brought in for expertise in governmental affairs and it wasn’t easy to get beyond that area of expertise.”

Strobl is a graduate of San Diego State University.