The Economic Recovery Corps (ERC), a flagship IEDC initiative, continues to demonstrate the impact of investing in embedded talent. This month, ERC Fellow George Williams was accepted into the University of Oxford Saïd Business School’s MSc in Major Programme Management — the world’s leading research program on why megaprojects succeed or fail. Designed for senior leaders, the two-year executive program begins in September 2026 as the ERC fellowship concludes.
Megaprojects — large-scale investments such as advanced manufacturing sites, energy infrastructure, and major redevelopment initiatives — are increasingly shaping regional economies. Historically, these projects have followed an attraction-driven model, often prioritizing speed and scale over long-term community outcomes. For economic developers, they represent both opportunity and tension: the potential to catalyze billions in investment and job creation, alongside the challenge of ensuring these projects deliver equitable, sustainable, and locally rooted benefits.
Through his work with ERC, Williams has been testing what it looks like to do this differently. Embedded in Northeast Ohio for the past 30 months with the Fund for Our Economic Future, he has helped advance a complex, multi-jurisdictional advanced technology megasite — coordinating stakeholders across government, philanthropy, and industry to align around a shared vision for long-term regional competitiveness.
In practice, this has meant integrating workforce, housing, and community priorities into the project from the outset — treating them as core to the development strategy, not secondary considerations. This approach reflects a broader shift in how megaprojects can be structured: not just as vehicles for investment attraction, but as platforms for more equitable and resilient economic development.
That effort secured a $67-million state investment and positioned the site as a future multi-billion-dollar development — demonstrating how this approach can unlock capital while strengthening local outcomes.
Williams brings a distinctive background that has shaped this approach, with experience spanning White House operations, international diplomacy, and educational exchanges. Through these roles, he has developed a unique ability to translate between policy, politics, and practice — navigating complexity, aligning stakeholders, and bridging local realities with national and global priorities.
Through ERC, IEDC is building that capacity, embedding experienced professionals in communities to lead this work on the ground while contributing to national and global learning.
Williams will bring lessons from Ohio into Oxford’s global cohort and return with insights to strengthen the practice of economic development at scale.
“This approach has applications far beyond a single region,” Williams said. “ERC is helping reimagine what economic development can be — and I’m proud to bring that work into a global context.”
His acceptance underscores ERC’s broader impact: developing practitioners who not only deliver results locally, but help shape the future of the field globally.
Learn more about ERC’s impact at economicrecoverycorps.org/impact.