The board of Visit Florida,

Agency also approves ex-chief Will Seccombe’s severance

the state’s tourism marketing group, hires a new CEO and approves a smallerthan-expected severance package for its outgoing CEO after the controversial decision last year to pay rapper Pitbull $1 million.

The board of the beleaguered Visit Florida hired a new CEO and approved a smaller-than-expected severance package for its outgoing CEO at its meeting Tuesday at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

Kenneth Lawson, current director for the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, was unanimously hired at a salary of $175,000 a year and will begin work as soon as today, when he and board chair William Talbert III meet with Gov. Rick Scott in Tallahassee.

Scott has been critical of Visit Florida, the state’s public-private tourism marketing group, after the controversial decision last year to pay rapper Pitbull $1 million as part of a marketing campaign that featured his repurposed song “Sexy Beaches.”

The governor asked thenCEO Will Seccombe to resign following the revelation, which was followed by a call for more transparency and accountability for a group set to receive $76 million in state taxpayer dollars this coming year.

The board approved a $73,000 severance package for Seccombe, far less than the $327,000 that a clause in his contract stated he could receive. Talbert said Seccombe — CEO since 2012 and with the group since 2008 — agreed to waive his contract and accept the $73,000, which Talbert said will come entirely out of private industry funding for the group and not state coffers.

In 2014, Seccombe made $291,152 in salary and $30,211 in benefits, some of which came from private sources.

In a statement, Scott did not mention Seccombe but praised Lawson, whom he appointed as head of the department in charge of licensing and regulation businesses in 2011.

Lawson “understands the responsibility we have to be transparent with every tax dollar,” Scott wrote. “At DBPR, he oversaw crucial parts of Florida’s tourism industry and knows that tourism is important to the economic growth of our state.’’

The group has been under fire recently from House