Prosper Portland, an organization focused on business retention and real estate in Oregon’s largest city, has tapped a high-ranking economic development official from Birmingham to become its new executive director.

Cornell Wesley would assume leadership of Portland’s economic development agency as it tries to find its footing after a fraught budget season, and the release of impolitic internal messages among agency staffers, that culminated in the resignation of its interim executive director.

Wesley was one of two department leaders revealed this week to be leaving Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodin’s administration. Galvin Billups, director of the Department of Youth Services, also left city hall.

“We thank Cornell for his service and wish him continued success in this next chapter,” Woodfin said.

Woodfin said he has appointed Coreata’ Houser as interim director of Innovation and Economic Opportunity beginning July 24.

Houser most recently served as senior deputy director of innovation and economic opportunity.

Prosper Portland’s board of commissioners will have to publicly vote on Wesley’s appointment.

Reached by phone, Wesley confirmed he had accepted the job in Portland, where his wife was born and raised.

“Broadly speaking, we’re always excited about new challenges and new opportunities to be impactful,” Wesley said. “I have a heart for this line of work.”

Wesley oversaw a Birmingham department of about a dozen people whose work aligns largely with Prosper’s mission of business retention and real estate management.

His resume includes work in the private and public sectors, including in banking and at the Economic Development Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Prosper Board Chair Gustavo Cruz declined to comment.

A proposal by City Council members Mitch Green and Jamie Dunphy to strip Prosper of an $11 million budget allocation prompted interim Executive Director Shea Flaherty Betin in May to urge agency supporters to lobby against the proposal, arguing it would “decimate” Prosper’s long-term program funding.

When the proposal came up for a vote during a budget meeting later that month, Prosper staff railed against the City Council in a agencywide Teams chat, copies of the messages revealed.

Those messages pushed Mayor Keith Wilson to request that Flaherty Betin step down from his role leading Prosper, and Flaherty Betin decided to leave the agency altogether, with severance of $213,000.

Prosper’s five-member board of commissioners in early June voted to install agency veteran Lisa Abuaf as the new interim executive director until the permanent leader, whose name was secret at the time, started in the summer. The agency’s last permanent director was Kimberly Branam, who decamped in September for a job at the Port of Portland.

AL.com’s Joseph D. Bryant contributed to this report.