Rob Williams serves as director and national network builder of SourceLink℠, an innovative program out of the University of Missouri-Kansas City that applies entrepreneurship-led economic development principals to advance urban and rural communities throughout the United States. Rob engages with SourceLink affiliates giving best practice guidance, technical assistance, and strategizes with communities to co-develop KPIs to realize desired economic impact goals. In 2021, SourceLink expanded to 83 communities, delivered 25 entrepreneurship development projects, and supported 650,000 small businesses. In addition to entrepreneurship efforts, Rob has completed initiatives to support workforce talent and rural broadband development.

Prior to SourceLink, Rob served in multiple positions at the University of Northern Iowa. While there, he provided business counseling for the Small Business Development Center; led strategic planning entrepreneurship-led economic development education with rural economic developers as part of an EDA University Center initiative; and was part of a team charged with re-imagining statewide service delivery to rural entrepreneurs, resulting in awards personally and professionally from International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and University Economic Development Association.

During his career, Rob has been actively engaged with building entrepreneurship-led economic development, including membership with IEDC since 2007. He has volunteered time to present at OU/EDI courses on the topic of entrepreneurship-led economic development, and served as faculty for the Heartland Basic Economic Development Course. Rob has been part of the group that produced multiple Growing Entrepreneurial Communities Summits and thought leader gatherings, and most recently, the same group that collaborated to create the first formal curriculum of its kind for the IEDC’s Entrepreneurship Development Professional designation.

Concurrent to his entrepreneurship-led economic development work, Rob served as a participant, mentor, and national resource partner as part of the Kauffman Foundation’s initiatives to engage national stakeholders to organize entrepreneurship ecosystem building.

Efforts included collaborating with others to coordinate national programs; tapped to join a ESHIP Champions group to guide efforts, and he currently serves on the Governance Committee for the Ecosystem Building Leadership Project.

Education

University of Oklahoma, Heartland Basic Economic Development, 2015-2016 (alumni + faculty)

BA, Public Admin: Community & Regional Development, University of Northern Iowa, 2008

Professional Associations

International Economic Development Council (IEDC), 2007 to Present

International Business Innovation Association (InBIA), 2007 to Present

University Economic Developers Association (UEDA), 2007 to Present