Session Speakers

Jay C. Biggins
Executive Managing Director
Biggins Lacy and Shapiro & Co.

Mr. Biggins is responsible for the firm's national account corporate relationships, including advising Clients on overall incentives and relocation strategies, managing major projects involving complex multi-jurisdictional competitive strategies (employing non-traditional incentives such as land assemblage and development approvals), and developing innovative new incentives structures to facilitate Client objectives. He also serves as an advisor to public sector economic development organizations on incentives strategies. His recent engagements include Bristol Myers Squibb, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mellon, Lehman Brothers, MetLife, Verizon, UBS, Diageo plc, Chubb and Bloomberg. He also manages the firm’s work in urban redevelopment and Brownfields projects, which currently entails multiple sites totaling 2,000 acres in New Jersey.

Prior to joining BLS, he served as Senior Vice President and CFO of the real estate subsidiary of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a diversified developer concentrating on corporate build-to-suit projects and large-scale urban projects undertaken in public-private partnerships. Mr. Biggins also served as Executive Director of NYC's Office of Economic Development, and later was appointed Commissioner of Ports, International Trade & Commerce. In these capacities, he was responsible for incentivizing private investment in NYC, managing the financing of large-scale development projects (totaling more than $1 billion), and leading trade/investment missions targeting European and Asian markets.

Mr. Biggins has served on the editorial advisory boards of CoreNet’s Corporate Real Estate Leader magazine and of Site Selection magazine, and published articles on a wide range of incentive and site selection topics.

He is a graduate of Rutgers University and received a J.D. from Rutgers Law School, and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Kerry Blind, FASLA
President
Ecos Environmental Design

Prior to founding Ecos Environmental Design, Inc. in 1994, Kerry Blind served as a principal with an Atlanta landscape architecture firm (1992-94) and as president of Kerry Blind Associates, Inc. (1981-1992), a firm first founded in Orlando, Florida in 1981. Before starting his own practice, he worked as a landscape architect and planner with Walt Disney Productions in Florida and Heery in Atlanta. Mr. Blind has gained considerable experience in large-scale environmental planning and design, urban design and streetscape projects, as well as hospital and healthcare projects throughout his 30 years of professional practice.

A graduate of Purdue University, Mr. Blind’s professional experience has consistently been geared toward environmentally sensitive and sustainable planning and design. He also specialized in damaged site refurbishment and correcting site drainage problems through innovative grading and vegetation schemes.

Tracey Hyatt Bosman, CEcD
Associate Director
Grubb & Ellis

Tracey Hyatt Bosman is an Associate Director, Strategic Consulting with Grubb & Ellis. Ms. Bosman specializes in Business Location Services, assisting companies in finding the optimal location for new or expanding operations through labor market research, business cost analysis, risk assessment, and incentives negotiations. She serves as Grubb & Ellis’ economic development liaison and has been a presenter for the Mid-America Economic Development Council and the Illinois Development Council.

Ms. Bosman is an experienced economic developer, having worked at both the county and state levels. Immediately prior to joining Grubb & Ellis, she was Vice President of Policy and Operations for Lake County Partners, an economic development organization in the Chicago area. Ms. Bosman’s state-level experience was earned at the South Carolina Department of Commerce, where she worked as Senior Manager of Prospect Activities and as Manager, International Trade Development for North and Latin American markets.

Ronnie L. Bryant, CEcD, FM, HLM
President and CEO
Charlotte Regional Partnership

As President and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, Ronnie Bryant leads the economic development organization that promotes the 16-county Charlotte region as a premier location for businesses considering expansion or relocation. Bryant is nationally known for his proven track record of establishing and implementing successful economic development programs, with a strong emphasis on existing industry expansion and retention, regionalism and marketing.

Prior to joining CRP, Bryant served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Pittsburgh Regional, Senior Vice President of the Economic Development Division for the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association and led the development team at the Shreveport, LA., Chamber of Commerce.

Bryant is a graduate of Louisiana State University in Shreveport and the Economic Development Institute (EDI). He is a recipient of the American Economic Development Council’s (IEDC) Robert B. Cassell Leadership Award for excellence in leadership and scholarship. He is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) and currently serves as a member of EDI’s Board of Directors and is immediate past president of that organization. Bryant is actively involved with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), where he has been designated as a Fellow Member (FM) and currently serves as Past Chairman of the Board.

Scott Carlberg
President
Talking Points, LLC – Public Affairs Management

Scott Carlberg, President of Talking Points LLC – Public Affairs Management, positions management and boards to drive organizations’ external affairs activities closer to their revenue lines. Carlberg has counseled corporate executives, analyzed key stakeholders and produced targeted programming to hit institutional goals in public and industry forums. He is credentialed through Board Source for nonprofit board governance and leadership training.

Hilary C. Coman, CEcD
President
The Coman Company

Coman Company Founder and President, Hilary Coman has broad experience in business and marketing, locally, nationally and internationally. Ms. Coman, a Charlotte, N.C., native, earned her undergraduate degree from Davidson College and holds graduate degrees in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University and Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

Through Coman Company, Ms. Coman helps clients to improve performance against their financial and social goals. Working with both business and governmental clients to identify opportunities, she assists them in market analysis, organizational assessment and strategic planning. Her expertise includes design and delivery of market research, using fact-based research to develop strategic plans, business performance improvement and development and implementation of growth strategies.

Ms. Coman is an alumna of the international consulting firm McKinsey and Company, and has considerable experience working overseas in foreign environments and cultures.

John Davies
President and CEO
Baton Rouge Area Foundation

John Davies has served as president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation since June 1988. During his tenure, the Foundation has grown from $3 million to more than $500 million in assets. The Foundation provides two essential functions for the capital region. One, the Foundation connects philanthropists with capable nonprofits to make sure the needs of the communities are met. For example, donors support the Shaw Center for the Arts, buy eyeglasses for needy children, fund services to care for abused women and children, and underwrite the symphony and Manship Theatre.

Two, the Foundation invests in and manages pivotal projects that can change the community. Its Plan Baton Rouge initiative spearheaded the downtown revitalization plan and now is working to revive Old South Baton Rouge. Its real estate asset revived the abandoned Capitol House, and is set to work on other groundbreaking projects in Baton Rouge. The Center for Planning Excellence, an offshoot land planning division, is deeply involved in building a new future for South Louisiana. What's more, the Foundation is working with community partners from the Northshore to Lake Charles in creating an economic corridor.

Charlotte Franklin, CEcD
Deputy Coordinator, Business Preparedness and Public/Private Partnering
Arlington Office of Emergency Management

Charlotte Franklin, CEcD, is Deputy Coordinator of Arlington County’s Office of Emergency Management responsible for business preparedness and partnership programs: public/private resource partnerships and business resiliency and resumption after a disaster. Previously, she served as Director, Business Investment Group, Arlington Economic Development where her main accountability was creating and sustaining business activity and employment in Arlington; retention, expansion and attraction of business activity and contributing to improving the quality of life for Arlington’s businesses and workforce.

She spearheaded the design of the first workshops in the country after 9/11 on business recovery and building threat mitigation and assessment. She was the contributing customer designer of the first government instant alert system in the United States now used by most states and local governments to instantly alert residents and first responders of public safety concerns. She is a writer, speaker, and expert on business preparedness and the built environment as a level of homeland defense. Ms. Franklin served on the Board of the Association of Contingency Planners Mid-Atlantic Chapter (Program Director) and was its Most Valuable Member in 2005.

Tim E. Gause
Customer Relations Manager
Duke Energy

Tim Gause has had diverse leadership demands in 34 years in the electric utility industry. He has managed business and field operations in the Carolinas, experiencing the full cycle of energy development and changing customer expectations for energy delivery. Gause developed expertise in economic development, field operations, customer relations and corporate philanthropy. Gause is currently the company’s liaison to city and county government, elected officials and emergency managers in the Charlotte region.

Amy Holloway
President and CEO
Avalanche Consulting

Amy Holloway is the President and CEO of Austin-based Avalanche Consulting. She founded Avalanche in 2005 to offer economic developers a new approach to marketing - one that is fresh thinking, highly creative, and implementation oriented. Avalanche provides marketing strategies, economic development plans, and marketing campaign management.

Holloway has 13 years of experience in economic development planning and marketing. During her consulting career, she has led focus groups and interviews with thousands of people. From 1996-2005, Holloway served as Senior Project Manager and then Vice President of Economic Development for AngelouEconomics. She oversaw the firm’s economic development planning department and led the firm’s own marketing campaign. While there, Holloway wrote dozens of economic development and marketing strategies, including plans for: Charleston; Santa Fe; Metro Orlando; Fort Bend County; Greater Binghamton; Northwest North Carolina; Cleveland; the State of Texas; and the Texas Workforce Commission. Between 2000 and 2002, she managed AngelouEconomics’ European office in Germany, where her clients included the promotion agencies of the Czech Republic, Portugal, and Carinthia, Austria.

Before joining AngelouEconomics, Holloway was an economic consultant for Nobel Prize nominated Dr. M. Ray Perryman at The Perryman Group. In 2005, she was a business development manager for industrial design-build firm Gray Construction.

Joan Jorgenson
President
Jorgenson Consulting

Joan has over 20 years of executive search experience within the economic development, chamber of commerce, government, and private sector organizations. Joan started Jorgenson Consulting nearly 15 years ago and has built the company into one of the top executive consulting firms in North America.

Joan is a past member of the International Economic Development Council and Southern Economic Development Council Board of Directors. Joan is a regular speaker at annual national and state economic development association meetings

Ronald R. Kitchens
Chief Executive Officer
Southwest Michigan First

Ron Kitchens is the Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Michigan First as well as the Managing Partner of the Southwest Michigan First Life Science Venture Fund. Ron hosts a weekly television program, Business First, authors a bi-monthly business column and speaks to business and professional groups throughout the nation.

Throughout his nearly 25 year career in economic development in Michigan, Texas and Missouri, Ron has worked with more than two-hundred Fortune 500, international or regional corporations. Ron’s work has been cited in Fast Company, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News and National Public Radio, along with dozens of other national and international media outlets. Ron’s work has been recognized with dozens of awards, including prestigious marketing and innovation awards from IEDC and CoreNet Global.

Rick Little
Director of Real Estate and Land Title
Weyerhaeuser

Rick has been an employee of Weyerhaeuser Company since 1983. He started with the company as a environmental paralegal, spent two years as Manager of Information Systems for the Law Department and for the last seventeen years has been a part of the Real Estate Services group, taking over leadership of the group in 2002. The charter of the RES team is to provide support to the company’s non-timberland operating businesses including site selection, contract negotiation, lease administration and disposition of surplus assets. Real Estate Services also consults with the company’s offshore manufacturing operations and offices in eighteen foreign countries. Rick also manages the Land Title group responsible for the administration and maintenance of all permanent real property records, including the six million acres of privately held timberlands.

Rick spent his four years of high school at the Ecole Internationale de Geneve, in Geneva, Switzerland and graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington with degrees in Biology and English.

Judy McKinney-Cherry
Director
Delaware Economic Development Office

Judy McKinney-Cherry was nominated by Governor Ruth Ann Minner and confirmed by the Senate as the first female Director of the Delaware Economic Development Office in October 2002. After spending ten years as an Economic Development Program Manager in the Delaware Economic Development Office, Judy went on to hold a series of strategic leadership positions with Info Systems, a national information technology services company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. When Judy retired from Info Systems in 2002, she was responsible for profitably managing nearly $30 million in business annually.

Under Judy McKinney-Cherry, the Delaware Economic Development Office has refocused its efforts to become a sales oriented organization. She has been instrumental in providing the organization productivity and technology tools, specific results-oriented performance measures, and development of a marketing and communications division. The Director implemented a cluster strategy coupled with an innovative entrepreneurial action plan. She has modernized many of the policies and approaches to economic development.

Judy is a graduate from the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science, while securing minors in Computer Science and Economics from the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

She has been awarded the Regional SBA Award for assisting small businesses (2003) and was elected to the Board of Directors for the International Economic Development Council for 2007-2010. Judy was chair of the IT sub-committee of the Governor’s Strategic Economic Council from 2001-20002 and a board member of the statewide Workforce Investment Board 1998-2008; and Co-Chair of the Performance Review Committee from 2000-2002.

Charles H. McMillan, III, P.E., LEED A.P.
AEC, Inc.

Mr. McMillan has a varied background in civil and environmental engineering, acting as both project engineer and project manager. In 1990 Mr. McMillan founded AEC, Inc. a civil engineering, landscape architecture and land planning firm that has grown from a sole proprietorship to an organization employing over twenty five people. As a civil engineer, Mr. McMillan handles site design which encompasses all elements of a construction project outside the building, including storm drainage, site layout, roadways and water/sewer, etc. Mr. McMillan has been involved with over twenty sustainable design projects ranging in complexity from single sites to community planning/engineering. Mr. McMillan is a registered professional engineer in eleven states and continues to be involved with emerging technical issues, as well as community and professional outreach.

Charles McSwain, BCCR
Vice President
CSX Real Property and CSX Realty Development

Charles McSwain, BCCR, has been engaged in real estate, economic development and urban economics for thirty years. A vice president in real estate with CSX, Mr. McSwain is currently responsible for Business Unit Services for all the CSX Companies. Mr. McSwain has used the real estate and asset management platform to create a strategic planning function among business units driving shared infrastructure efficiencies and shareholder value. In addition to serving unit heads and CFOs as a real estate advisor, his real estate group is responsible for all real estate acquisitions and office leasing transactions.

Prior to joining CSX in 1988 as part of their real estate development company, Mr. McSwain was Managing General Partner for American Tectonics, a regional real estate development company. Serving as a basis for his business acumen were prior positions as economist and urban planner for a regional planning group, economic development for a statewide public utility, and director of Tampa’s Committee of 100.

Mr. McSwain was educated at the University of Florida, University of South Florida and York University, England. He has received the Certified Industrial Developer designation from AIDC and has actively served in IAMC, CUED, AIDC, ULI, NAIOP, CoreNet and IDRC.

Erik R. Pages
President
EntreWorks Consulting

Erik R. Pages is President and Founder of EntreWorks Consulting. In this role, he works with communities and organizations to help them achieve their entrepreneurial potential. He has helped design, develop, and implement innovative economic development programs in dozens of communities across the US and overseas.

He previously served as Policy Director for the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE), where he directed the Commission's research and policy operations. Dr. Pages has also held senior positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA), where he helped lead efforts to assist communities affected by military base closings and defense plant shutdowns. He has worked on Capitol Hill, and was an official advisor to the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business.

He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University, where he now serves as an Adjunct Professor. He also holds degrees from Dickinson College (Phi Beta Kappa) and the University of Pittsburgh. He has written and published widely on business trends, economic development, technology policy, and national security policy. His work has been featured in national and international media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, and National Public Radio.

Manuel Pastor
Professor, Department of Geography
University of Southern California

Dr. Manuel Pastor is on leave from his position as Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is currently a Professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he director the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE). Professor Pastor has received grants and fellowships from the Irvine Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and many others.

Dr. Pastor’s most recent book, co-authored with Chris Benner, and Laura Leete, is entitled Staircases or Treadmills: Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy (Russell Sage, 2007). He co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh, a book entitled Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America (W.W. Norton, 2002). He also co-authored with Peter Dreier, Eugene Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press, 2000), a book that has become a reference for those seeking to better link community and regional development.

Dr. Pastor speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment and has contributed opinion pieces to such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Christian Science Monitor. He served as a member of the Commission on Regions appointed by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly.

Phillip D. Phillips, PhD, CEcD
Director of Business Retention and Expansion
Affiliation: Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce

Dr. Phillips is director of business retention and expansion, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. From 1995-2004, he also served as director of international programs for the chamber (since elevated to separate full-time position).

Prior to joining the greater omaha chamber, phil served as director of the office of corporate relations and community development at the university of illinois at urbana-champaign from 1968 to 1993. Phil was a consultant, assistance vice president and vice president of the fantus company (now deloitte touche) in chicago from 1978 to 1986. Phil also served as a faculty member at the university of kentucky from 1972 to 1978 where he taught courses in economic geography and urban studies. He also served as adjunct professor at the university of illinois, university of chicago and creighton university. He holds a distinguished list of affiliations and certifications.

Phil holds a ba and ma degrees from the university of illinois at urbana-champaign and a ph.d. From the university of minnesota. He is author of numerous articles in publications such as the economic development review and site selection and is author of several books, including retaining and expanding local business and industry, strategic planning for community economic development and economic development for small communities and rural areas.

Carin L. Rockind
Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Team Northeast Ohio – Cleveland Business Plus

As the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Team Northeast Ohio (Cleveland Plus Business), Carin Rockind is responsible for targeted outreach and marketing programs that promote the Cleveland Plus regional assets for business expansion, as well as encouraging engagement in the regional economic development organization among Northeast Ohio’s business and community leadership. She takes a proactive approach to achieve recognition for the organization and the region. Ms. Rockind brings to Team NEO more than ten years of marketing communications and public relations experience, with focus in automotive and manufacturing industries. She specializes in building strategic marketing communications that incorporate traditional and non-traditional mediums to accomplish business objectives. Prior to joining Team NEO, she served as communications manager for Alcoa Wheel Products, where she developed and managed internal communications, public relations and marketing communications for the global, billion-dollar division of Alcoa Inc. Her marketing experience includes brand development and execution, e-commerce strategy and implementation, direct marketing, incentive marketing and print for companies including Helm Incorporated, Omnicom and Entertainment Publications, which are based in Detroit, Michigan.

Crystal Sircy
Vice President, Competitive Programs and Policies
Enterprise Florida

Crystal Sircy serves as Vice President of Competitive Programs and Policies for Enterprise Florida (EFI) – the public-private partnership responsible for leading Florida’s statewide economic development efforts. Since joining Enterprise Florida in 1996, she has worked in the organization’s Business Retention and Recruitment unit.

Crystal supports EFI’s mission to diversify Florida’s economy by leading the organization’s incentives team and managing retention, expansion and recruitment projects that create thousands of higher wage jobs each year. In cooperation with EFI's governmental relations team and local economic development partners, Crystal helps shape the state’s business climate by developing and advocating public policy that improves Florida’s competitiveness for business recruitment, retention and expansion projects.

Since 1989, when she began her professional economic development experience with the former Florida Department of Commerce, Crystal has worked at both the state and local levels of economic development within Florida.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from The University of Florida, she received a Master’s in Business Administration at Florida State University.

Ron Starner
General Manager
Conway Data Inc./ Site Selection Magazine

Ron Starner is the General Manager of Site Selection magazine, an international corporate real estate publication based in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross. The official publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC), Site Selection reaches 44,000 high-level decision-makers six times a year with timely news, analysis and perspective on key events and trends impacting corporate real estate and economic development. The magazine also publishes SiteNet, the online Web portal for corporate real estate and economic development news and data.

Ron also serves as Executive Director of IAMC, a corporate real estate and economic development association with 440 members. IAMC serves the needs of corporate real estate directors of leading Fortune 500 companies such as BASF, Pfizer, Honeywell and Campbell’s Soup.

A journalism graduate of Virginia’s Liberty University, Ron holds a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Prior to coming to Site Selection in August of 2000, he spent six years in various editorial roles with Florida Real Estate Journal, where he ultimately became editor and then publisher. Ron has eight years of experience at a daily newspaper in Florida, where he led the Winter Haven News Chief to several statewide awards in journalism. At the newspaper, Ron served as a reporter, opinion page editor and city editor.

Debra Thompson
President
Strategy Solutions, Inc.

Debra Thompson is President of Strategy Solutions, Inc., a firm providing strategic planning, market research, facilitation, and training services to organizations and communities that want to grow and thrive. Among services to both for-profit and non-profit organizations, her major accomplishments include facilitating local and regional economic development strategic planning initiatives, visioning & planning processes for government consolidations, healthcare systems and joint ventures, as well as business turnarounds. She has completed a number of marketing/branding and market re-positioning projects. Prior to this position she served as Director of Planning for Hamot Health Foundation and Corry Regional Health Systems where she was responsible for strategic planning, market research, marketing information systems, as well as affiliate and community planning support. She also held positions of Manager, Market and Product Planning and Coordinator, Marketing Information Systems.

A graduate of Villa Maria College with a B.S. in Marketing, Debra received her Master of Business Administration from Gannon University. Before joining Hamot, Debbie worked as a Business Analyst in the Small Business Development Center. She has also taught Marketing, Research and Strategic Planning courses and is an adjunct faculty member at Gannon University. For the Coro Center for Civic Leadership “Women in Leadership” program in Pittsburgh, and is a certified trainer.

Krista S. Tillman
Executive in Residence
Queens University of Charlotte

Ms. Tillman has developed technical, managerial and leadership capabilities via her 28-year career in the telecom industry. Through her varied positions with BellSouth she has developed her expertise in business strategy, operations management and assessment, public policy strategy and new market assessment. Her extensive community board work has enhanced her diverse experience set. She currently consults on the behalf of both for-profit and not-for-profit clients.

Ms. Tillman has been President of North Carolina Operations of BellSouth Telecommunications Inc., a subsidiary of Bellsouth Corp. since June 2000. Ms. Tillman is responsible for the state operations for North Carolina including the external community, regulatory and public policy. She served as an officer of BellSouth Telecommunications and President of Small Business Services since October 1997. She served as North Carolina president of AT&T Inc. until January 31, 2007. She has participated in the executive management development programs at Emory Business School and the Management Leadership Institute of Boston University. Ms. Tillman holds a Masters of Science Degree in Applied Statistics from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from Georgia State.

Matt Webb, AICP
Project Manager
Michigan Department of Transportation

Mr. Matt Webb, AICP has over 11 years of transportation planning experience. He currently oversees the production of major action NEPA documents for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), including an EIS for a proposed $450 million dollar expansion of the Blue Water Bridge Plaza Port of Entry in Port Huron, Michigan. During his tenure with MDOT, he has also served as Special Projects Coordinator where he was responsible for overseeing the planning and implementation of federal earmark projects, various economic-related analysis studies, and coordinating project development issues for trunkline Transportation Economic Development Fund projects. Prior to joining MDOT, Mr. Webb was employed in the private sector working on various early preliminary engineering and transportation planning projects throughout Michigan and the Midwest. He holds a B.S. from Michigan State University.

Brit Weber
Director, Critical Incident Protocal Community Facilitation Program
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University

Brit joined the School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University (MSU) in 2002. He is the director of the CIP (Critical Incident Protocol) - Community Facilitation Program. The CIP-Community Facilitation program builds public and private partnerships for joint critical incident preparedness. Brit works on various homeland security, emergency management, business continuity, security management, and criminal justice initiatives and programs.

Previously, he served 28 years with the Michigan State Police holding operational, specialty, and management positions in the Uniform Division. Brit subsequently joined the R.W. Mercer Company as the Manager of Safety and Human Resources responsible for training, inspection, and regulatory compliance, along with planning, project management, and policy development.

In 2001, Brit served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Kosovo, Yugoslavia where he was a project manager and instructor with the United Nations Police Force. He developed and directed various training programs for the newly created Kosovo Police Service and the United Nation’s Police.

Brit received his Bachelor of Science degree in public safety from Eastern Michigan University. He completed the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command, and earned the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification. Brit earned MSU’s certificate in homeland security and is working on his master’s degree in criminal justice.

James M. Winter, Jr.
Manager of Corporate Real Estate
Alcoa Inc.

Jim has worked in the Real Estate Division of Alcoa’s Treasury Department since the mid 1990’s. He is responsible for meeting global real estate related needs of the company and its business and resource units, which include the disposal of surplus owned or leased real estate; the purchase or lease of office, warehousing or manufacturing facilities; the management of the company’s remaining residential development property; and he provides advice on other real estate related issues.

Jim previously had been a Supervisor in Alcoa’s Internal Audit Department, a division of the Finance Department. Prior to Alcoa, Jim worked for Price Waterhouse/Coopers as a member of the general accounting practice area. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Jim earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, from Duquesne University. Jim is on the Board of Director’s for the Industrial Asset Management Council and the Alcoa Pittsburgh Federal Credit Union.

Thomas R. Zechman
Public Works Director
City of Piqua, Ohio

Tom Zechman has been Public Works Director for the City of Piqua, Ohio, since 1984,where he is responsible for streets, water, wastewater, parks and engineering.

Since 2004 he has also served as project manager for the Fort Piqua Hotel restoration project. The 1891 structure is the focal point of Piqua’s downtown. Abandoned for 35 years it is now being restored to house a library, restaurant and banquet facility.

Zechman has previously worked as an instructor at Edison State Community College in Piqua and as a bridge engineer at Austin Bridge Company in Dallas, Texas. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Southern Methodist University and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Dayton. He is a registered professional engineer and surveyor.

Melissa A. Ziegler
Director, Economic and Community Development Services Group
Wilbur Smith Associates

Melissa Ziegler has been actively involved in economic and community development, real estate development, and strategic planning for over twenty years. Ms. Ziegler works on projects throughout the United States assisting states, communities, and business organizations to develop solution strategies to build economic prosperity. Wilbur Smith Associates (WSA) is an international consulting firm with office throughout the US focused on transportation, engineering, economics, and planning.

As Director of Economic and Community Development Services for Wilbur Smith Associates, Ms. Ziegler leads a broad range of projects for the firm and their clients. Ms. Ziegler is working with federal, state, and regional organizations developing economic development and transportation plans that will help to sustain existing businesses and support the growth of future business clusters. Prior to joining WSA, Ms. Ziegler was Executive of The Development Corporation of Knox County. She is a past President of the National Association for County Community and Economic Development, participates in a number of state ED organizations, and holds both an MBA and MPA from the University of Tennessee.