Scott Connell serves as the President of the Sherman Economic Development Corporation in Sherman, Texas and has more than 25 years of experience in economic development. He recently served as Vice President of Economic Development and Senior Vice President of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce since May 2005. In that role, he managed over 4,000 jobs in the Waco area.
Prior to Waco, Scott was the Vice President of Winston-Salem Business Inc. for 7 years in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was involved in attracting 3,900 jobs and $750 million of investment during that time. Scott has also led programs in Kannapolis, NC, Belton and Yoakum, Texas (all start-up organizations) and worked with Victoria, Texas Economic Development Corporation.
Scott and his wife Victoria have a 9-year old son, Paten. They are active in the Waco community where Scott serves as a member of the Vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Scott is also an active member of the Waco Rotary Club and serves as chairman of the City of Waco Recycling Advisory Committee.
Scott is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received his Certified Economic Developer certification in 1999.
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Susan Arledge, SIOR and Global Leader of Cresa’s Site Selection Services, focuses her efforts on providing tenant focused real estate brokerage and site selection services for clients locally, nationally and globally. As head of Cresa’s Dallas office as well as Cresa’s Global Site Selection team, Susan focuses on finding locations that reduce attrition, increase productivity, improve quality of service and allows clients to remain competitive by finding a labor force that meets their quality standards. A recognized author and frequent speaker on the skills required for site selection, incentive negotiations and tenant representation, Susan was recognized by D CEO Magazine as the ‘Most Read Contributing Editor for 2012 and 2013’ for her real estate blog entries.
Prior to the taking the helm at Cresa Dallas, Susan led Arledge Partners Real Estate Group; was a Senior Vice President with The Swearingen Company, where she was the Top Producer in 1990 and a Top Ten Producer each prior year. Susan was also a Senior Vice President with The Staubach Company for seven years where she earned the distinction of being the Company’s Top Producer and a Top Five Producer.
She served on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Cancer Fund, currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Heart Association and chaired the AHA’s 2011 Go Red for Women Luncheon.
Susan graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. She served as a member of the Administrative Board of Highland Park United Methodist Church, Texas Exes Alumni Association and is a graduate of the Leadership Dallas program.
Susan is a former private pilot, a Dallas native and has two children.
Cresa Dallas is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and certified as a HUB by the State of Texas.
A recognized leader in economic development, Gray Swoope has served both the public and private sectors for more than three decades most recently as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce. He has held leadership roles for a variety of organizations, as well as managed successful economic development entities. His management style is described as focused and steadfast when it comes to solving problems and winning competitive projects. Gray is also known for building highly effective teams noted for their ability to devise and implement strategic plans, and to get results. His expertise is international in scope, with a proven track record of successfully conducting business abroad.
Gray served in Governor Rick Scott’s administration (2011-2015) as Florida’s Secretary of Commerce and President & CEO of its principal economic development organization, Enterprise Florida, Inc. Under his leadership, Enterprise Florida completed a record fiscal year in 2013-14, and increased competitive projects by 40%, resulting in 73% more new jobs and 95% more capital investment in the state than in 2011.
During Gray’s tenure, Florida announced competitive project wins involving dozens of leading companies including Amazon, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Deutsche Bank, Embraer, GE, Hertz, Navy Federal Credit Union, Northrop Grumman, USAA, United Technology Corporation and Verizon. Since 2011 and in only 3 years, more than 728,000 private-sector jobs were added in Florida, surpassing Governor Scott’s goal of creating 700,000 private-sector jobs over 7 years.
Prior to his tenure in Florida, Gray served as the Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority under then Governor and current VisionFirst Advisors chairman, Haley Barbour.
During his tenure at the Mississippi Development Authority, Gray persuaded companies such as Toyota, PACCAR, GE Aviation and Severstal to build facilities in the state, resulting in a refocus of the state’s efforts to aggressively support industry retention and expansion. He also launched the Priority One Program targeting existing businesses, resulting in a measurable increase in jobs saved and/or created.
In addition, Gray worked with the legislature and the state’s private sector partner, Momentum Mississippi, to retool economic development incentives, thus laying the groundwork for significant new investment and expansion opportunities. Throughout his service at the MDA, Gray created a team that is recognized by site selection consultants and businesses alike as one of the most responsive state economic development teams in the nation.
Gray earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Mississippi State University.
*Please note, when we interviewed Gray, he was in his final days at Enterprise Florida. Today, Gray serves as President & Chief Executive Officer of VisionFirst Advisors.
Kathy is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Atlas Insight with over 22 years of combined experience as a management, incentive and site selection consultant. She is widely considered an industry expert in the site selection and incentive negotiation business. Her consulting career has focused on securing incentives for various projects as well as helping site selection clients to select optimal locations for expansion projects.
Kathy has conducted successful negotiations for some of the world’s largest corporations. While the majority of Atlas’ clients are companies in the Fortune 500, Kathy has also assisted small to mid-sized companies with projects in various industries. Kathy has an expertise in working on highly complex real estate development projects, including working with New Markets Tax Credits, Brownfield Tax Credits and various other land use entitlements.
Kathy is a reliable opinion source for trade publications and AP stories and has been a frequent guest of state governments to assist with development of strategic plans to attract business investment. Kathy has also written numerous expert articles for regional and national publications.
Before co-founding Atlas Insight, Kathy was a Regional Practice Leader in the Business Location Incentive and Site Selection group at BDO.
Kathy holds a Master of Science in Real Estate from New York University.
Mike Harvey joined the Northwest Arkansas Council in August 2011 as its Chief Operating Officer. Mike has 19 years of economic development experience at the local and regional level.
Throughout his career, Mike has successfully built one-stop operations that deliver site selection assistance, existing business services, entrepreneurial support and workforce development solutions to job seekers and employers alike. He has accomplished this with both individual and multiple organizations.
He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, earning a Bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1991, and a Master’s degree in economic development in 1995.
Mike worked at the local level in Alabama as President of the Marshall County Economic Development Council from 1995 to 2001. From there, he moved on to work for and then head up a regional economic development effort in Knoxville, TN from 2001 to 2007. He most recently served as President of the Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development in Charlottesville, VA from 2007 to August 2001, when he left to join the Council.
His interests include history, economics and meteorology. He also enjoys the ever-growing Northwest Arkansas outdoor, art and local food scene – where he spends most of his free time with the most important ‘person’ in his life – a scruffy 8-year-old terrier mix named Duffy.
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Dennis Cuneo is currently a management consultant and a partner in a national labor law firm. With a wide range of interests and expertise, Dennis has built a successful career solving a variety of business challenges, with a focus on legal challenges, public policy and economic development and human resources/labor relations. In addition to heading his own consulting firm, D.C. Strategic Advisors LLC, Dennis is a Regional Managing Partner at Fisher & Phillips LLP. He serves on the boards of two Fortune 500 companies, a privately held engineering and construction firm, an auto industry think tank and academic institutions. Dennis also serves as an advisor to several high tech companies.
Dennis was formerly a senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America, where he was in charge of accounting, corporate advertising, corporate communications, human resources, investor relations, industry & government relations, information systems, legal, strategic planning and the Latin American research group. Dennis also served as the company’s corporate secretary and chief environmental officer and was its chief spokesperson. Prior to joining Toyota, Dennis was an attorney with Arent Fox and a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dennis currently serves on the Boards of AK Steel Holding Corporation, BorgWarner Inc. and the Center for Automotive Research. Dennis serves on the Board of Loyola University in New Orleans and is a member of the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago’s Physical Sciences Division. Dennis previously served as Chair of the Cincinnati Branch of the Federal Reserve of Cleveland and was a member of the executive committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, where he also chaired the Human Resources Policy Group.
Dennis received a Juris Doctor from the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans; a Masters of Business Administration from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Science from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Marty Vanags assumed the position of Vice President for Regional Economic Development and Executive Director of the Indy Partnership, a business unit of the Indy Chamber, in February 2013. Marty leads a group of professional economic development staff whose mission is to market and promote the nine-county Indianapolis region as a place to invest and grow business. While in Indy, Marty has led a region that has consistently produced well over 10,000 jobs each year in the past two years with over $2 billion in capital investment.
Marty is a graduate of Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University (MPA) and has over 25 years of experience in community and economic development, private commercial real estate development and business management. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). He has served as Chairman of the Illinois Development Council, Chair of International Economic Development Council Public Policy Advisory Committee and member of the same organization’s Economic Development Research Partners (EDRP). Marty has served two terms on the Illinois State University Alumni Board, and the Board of Advisors for the Means Center for Entrepreneurship at ISU’s College of Business. He also is a co-founder and creator of the Center for Emerging Entrepreneurs, a business incubation and development program at Illinois State University.
Marty co-founded the @Midwest Social Media Conference, and speaks and provides seminars on social media and its impact on economic development and non-profits. He has spoken at various venues and conferences on topics ranging from communication, leadership, change management, and data-use in economic development and community development. Under Marty’s leadership, the Bloomington Normal EDC and the Indy Partnership have received numerous accolades and awards for marketing, communication and economic development best practices.
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Rose Burden is an Executive Director and the Southeast Leader for the Business Tax Credit and Incentives Practice at Ernst & Young LLP, a US member firm of the global EY organization.
Rose assumes a leadership role in identifying business incentive opportunities for clients in the six-state region. She has secured millions of dollars in savings for clients with facility or capital investment expansion projects. Rose has also helped clients realize significant benefits in areas such as state and local grants, local property tax reductions, training program grants and tax credits, expedited permitting, reduced land costs, sales and use tax abatements, enterprise zone benefits, income tax credits, infrastructure grants and utility rate reductions.
Rose has more than 25 years of project management and economic development experience in local and statewide development. She has served as the lead project manager on numerous corporate relocation and expansion projects in industry sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, technology, broadcasting and entertainment networks and manufacturing and distribution.
Rose has facilitated the approval of property tax and other incentives for more than 200 Fortune 100 projects in North America and globally. She has an exceptional track record of establishing relationships and building support teams with key government officials and the private sector, delivering positive economic impact projects for clients and communities. A primary goal is to maximize business incentives and bottom line savings for clients.
Prior to joining the firm, Rose directed economic development and corporate expansion programs for Fulton County (Atlanta based), and was a former senior site selection project manager for Oglethorpe Power Corporation.
Rose received her BS in Business and Marketing from Florida State University. She is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute – University of Oklahoma. Rose completed economic development certificate requirements from Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a Real Estate Licensed Professional in the state of Georgia.
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Rusty Brockman is the Director of Economic Development at The Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce, where he has served for 14 years. Rusty retired from public education in 2001 after 28 years; 15 of those were with the Comal ISD as campus assistant principal, principal and central office administrator. He spent the first 13 years of his career teaching life sciences, health, and physical education and coaching.
Rusty’s civic organization work includes Board member and Past President of the Wurstfest Association, New Braunfels Breakfast Lion’s Club President, Drive Chairman and Past President of United Way of Comal County, Advisory Board member of the Comal ISD Public School Foundation and Past President of the Canyon High School Athletic Booster’s. Rusty was also named Citizen of the Year in 1993 by the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, 1992 Chair of the Board and 2011 Honors Hall Award recipient of the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce and received the Seven Seals Award from the Army National Guard in 2010.
In professional organizations, Rusty serves as Immediate Past President of the Executive Board of the Texas Economic Development Council, was appointed in 2011 by Governor Perry to the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority for a 6 year term, Chairman of the Austin/San Antonio Corridor Council Economic Development Committee, member of the Guadalupe Basin Coalition, Board member of the Central Texas Technology Center, Board member for the Alamo Area Academies Institute at Alamo Colleges and Board Secretary of The Center for Entrepreneurship in New Braunfels, Texas. Rusty is actively involved in continuing the development of higher education, workforce training and business development opportunities in New Braunfels and Comal County, Texas.
Rusty graduated from the University of Houston in 1974 with a BS in education, and in 1979 received his Masters in Education and Administrators Certification from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Rusty married M’Liss Probst in 1975 and moved to New Braunfels in 1986. They are parents to five children and have 4 grandchildren.
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As a Senior Vice President in the Business & Economic Incentives group at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Mike Bennett leads the execution of national and global site selection services with a focus and expertise in incentives negotiations and overall strategy.
Mike has over 15 years of experience in local and regional economic development, business attraction, location-based decision support, prospective site due diligence, as well as labor market evaluations.
Mike’s professional background represents a balance of public and private sector experience. Prior to joining JLL, he was with Cushman & Wakefield Global Consulting where he was responsible for managing corporate site selection projects primarily in the warehouse, distribution and manufacturing sectors.
In addition to his work at Cushman & Wakefield, Mike was in community and regional economic development with the City of Glendale, Arizona and worked closely with the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. He is recognized as a key resource for state & regional economic development organizations looking to understand how to position their communities to compete for national projects.
Born in São Paulo and holding both Brazilian and U.S. citizenship, Mike spent 18 years in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the Philippines and Singapore before relocating to the United States for university studies. His international project experience includes work in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Panama and Singapore.
Mike earned a bachelor of science in Regional Development from The University of Arizona in 1999. In 2004, he completed The University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute program. He is also involved with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Mike has been a JLL “Young Gun” since 2013 and earned Gold Achiever honors in 2014.
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