Chris Roybal, senior economic development adviser to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., will leave the Governor's Office at the beginning of February, taking a job at a transportation services company.

Noting Roybal's "tremendous service" and talent, Huntsman credits Roybal with the creation of the state's World Trade Center and implementation of the USTAR technology initiative. His tenure coincides with record-breaking economic growth in the state.

At the same time, Roybal presided over an office that was the center of plenty of controversy, including his decision to fire virtually all of the state's economic development executives two years ago and his efforts to limit public information about the state's taxpayer-funded business incentives programs.

"My job was to help reorganize and kick off the governor's economic revitalization initiative," Roybal said Monday. "In large part, my work is done. And this opportunity presented itself."

Roybal will become the president and chief operating officer of Salt Lake City-based Northwest Research Corp. The company employs 250 workers who specialize in doing research and logistics work for transportation companies.

Huntsman recruited Roybal as an economic development adviser early in the 2004 campaign for governor. Then the director of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, Roybal had engaged in turf battles with executives in the state Department of Economic Development. After Huntsman's election, Roybal and then-chief of staff Jason Chaffetz oversaw the firing of more than 30 economic development executives who handled the state's corporate recruiting and travel and tourism.

The governor reconfigured the department, moving economic development and tourism workers under his and Roybal's direct supervision, and leaving the rest in a Department of Community and Culture. But the way the workers were fired dogged both Roybal and the governor.

"Most governors plan to bring some new initiatives to the table. My job was to help implement them," said Roybal. "There were a few bumps along the road, of course. That's to be expected."

That controversy faded as the state's economy continued to chug along. Roybal was a key advocate for the USTAR economic development initiative to capitalize on technological advances at the state's universities. He went along on the governor's first state trip to Mexico in 2005, the precursor to several trade missions. And he helped establish Utah's World Trade Center, a sort of one-stop shop intended to facilitate international trade and development in the state. Last year, Utah companies added 60,000 new jobs that have created a $1.6 billion revenue surplus for the state this year.

Richard Nelson, president of the Utah Technology Council and a member of the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board, says Roybal's close contact with the governor put the emphasis on economic development that Huntsman promised in 2004.

"There's been a closer tie," Nelson said.

But whether Roybal gets credit for the state's bullish economy and business recruitment is another question.

Huntsman and his advisers "have been very supportive to economic growth, economic development. That's important in good times and bad times," said James Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. "But timing has given them a bit of an advantage over their predecessors. That's really difficult to sort out."

Roybal had told the governor he would work one year at his $129,000-a-year advisement job. But he decided to stay on another year to finalize the transition. His last day on the job will be Feb. 2. He will not be replaced.

walsh@sltrib.com