ANN ARBOR ? The job duties for the CEO of Spark, a Washtenaw County technology marketing group, has expanded. Late last week, the Washtenaw Development Council approved a resolution to hire a CEO it would share with Spark. A similar measure was also approved last week by the Spark board, lead by Ardesta Founder Rick Snyder.

Snyder, in an interview Monday, said the missions of both organizations compliment each other, so it only makes sense to share a CEO. A merger between the two organizations, while not imminent, could take place in the next 12 months.

?If you look at it from a customer perspective, the services that Spark and WDC offer compliment each other. Spark will be marketing to better attract companies to the area. When the talent comes here, we turn them over to WDC to help them locate a business. They may then come back to Spark for help landing talent. We?re on the front end, WDC is in the middle, and Spark could come again on the back end.?

Snyder said Spark has looked at more than 10 candidates so far that have come from business and non profit backgrounds. Now that Spark will share its CEO with WDC, Spark will take a time out from the job search to form a joint search committee that will create a joint job description. Spark and WDC will split the CEO compensation costs.

?We?ll revisit some of the people we spoke with then,?? Snyder said. ?We?ll reassess those people. Our target range to get an acceptance is 30 to 90 days. But it could be six months to get that person in.?

The WDC is a nonprofit agency that recruits businesses to greater Ann Arbor. It helps businesses find real estate, offices, secure government tax breaks and other funding. Spark, launched in May, will offer similar services to technology startups and technology professionals. The genesis behind this is these hard to find technology professionals would help transfer U-M technology from laboratory to the outside world, and provide staff for Ardesta?s rapidly growing Ann Arbor technology companies.

As such, U-M President Mary Sue Coleman has pledged $600,000 for three years, and if the effort shows progress, would be willing to continue funding at the same rate for at least two years after that. Some $250,000 a year earmarked for the Ann Arbor Smart Zone also will be rolled into the projected $1 million annual operating costs. Pfizer, Eastern Michigan University, Bank of Ann Arbor, and other business, academic and nonprofit organizations also will contribute to Spark?s annual budget.

Spark, which has taken over the former Ann Arbor IT Zone Launchpad in downtown Ann Arbor, may also develop some service agreements with the IT Zone, Snyder said, which could include business acceleration services.

?We don?t want to take away anything from them,?? he said.