Ron Frierson serves as Director of Economic Development of the U.S. West Region at Amazon. In his role, Ron leads the team that supports and champions Amazon investment projects across various Amazon business lines in areas of market-entry, strategy, site selection, entitlements, operations, and partnerships. Before joining Amazon, Ron served as Director of Economic Policy for former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Ron led the Business Team for the Mayor’s Office, which developed business policy affecting the world’s 3rd largest metropolitan economy. Ron’s portfolio includes Commercial Real Estate Development, Technology, Sports & Entertainment, Manufacturing, Taxation, Healthcare, and Tourism & Hospitality. He also oversaw the Convention & Tourism Department, Department of Cannabis Regulation and the Economic Workforce & Development Department on behalf of the Mayor’s Office.

Significant projects include Gucci’s 100-year anniversary, COVID-19 microloan program, the L.A. Regional COVID Relief Fund, Commercial Eviction Moratorium, Covid-19 vaccine logistics/strategy, and film studio capacity strategy, among others. Ron’s team was instrumental in developing programs to help the Los Angeles economy stabilize and recover from damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ron’s career spans over 20 years of service in the private and public sectors, consisting of domestic and international corporate site selection, management consulting, real estate brokerage, labor analytics, supply chain analysis, discretionary business incentive negotiation & procurement, media, economic development, and international professional athletics.

Before joining the Mayor’s Office, Ron was Director of National Incentives for NAI Capital- Tenant Consulting Group in Los Angeles where he began building the firm’s national incentives procurement consulting capabilities and performed tenant representation brokerage services. Prior to that, he served as Vice President at CBRE-Location Incentives (AZ), a team that specializes in corporate site selection, labor analytics, supply chain analysis and business tax incentives negotiation/procurement throughout the United States and Canada.

Ron began his career with the Kansas Department of Commerce, as Manager of West Coast Business Development under former Governor(s) Bill Graves, Kathleen Sebelius and Sam Brownback. Responsibilities included business attraction, discretionary incentive negotiation, project management and marketing strategy for an 11-state territory.

Ron serves on Boards of Directors for the Urban Land Institute-LA, Global LA, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. He is a former member of CoreNet, House of Blues Foundation, and the Grammy Foundation. Ron is a former professional athlete - briefly playing professional basketball in Australia and France. 

He attended graduate school at Baker University in Kansas and graduated from Emporia State University in Kansas with a Bachelor’s of Science – Social Science on a full athletic scholarship. He remains engaged with his alma mater serving on the Board of Trustees and the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Cremer School of Business. In 2020, Ron was honored to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from Emporia State University. He lives in Los Angeles with his family and is a proud native of Saginaw, Michigan.