James is a certified economic developer (CEcD) and serves on the FEDC Board of Directors as the Southeast Regional Director.

Special thanks to Anita and her entire team for hosting FEDC's September Membership Meeting and Networking Lunch. We look forward to learning about all that is happening in Miramar!

A certified economic developer (CEcD), Richard is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning and holds professional certifications in urban planning and economic development. Richard has been a practicing city planner/economic development professional for 25+ years. During this time, he's been involved in long-range community planning; land development regulations; reviews of residential and commercial development projects; and business attraction, retention, and expansion activities.

Kat is a regular speaker at local, state and national conferences and works with Economic Leadership clients on executive communications, strategic planning and thought leadership particularly around economic development, talent attraction and commercial real estate. She regularly counsels CEOs and other leaders on messaging and positioning to elevate narratives to improve competitiveness and reputation.

Prior to joining Economic Leadership, Kat was the Executive Vice President of Client Strategy for place marketing firm Development Counsellors International based in New York City. There, she led the statewide economic development and talent attraction strategy for Florida Power & Light and the JAXUSA Partnership. She has previously worked with the Tampa Bay EDC, Orlando Economic Partnership, Enterprise Florida, and other rural economic developers throughout the state. Other previous clients include the Greater Houston Partnership, Research Triangle Regional Partnership, One Columbus, and Fairfax County Economic Development Authority in Northern Virginia.

She previously worked at Hill & Knowlton where she managed corporate clients like Deloitte Real Estate, the Staubach Company and Nixon Peabody LLP, and before moving to New York City, was Director of Government Affairs at the Tampa affiliate of the National Association of Home Builders. Kat is a graduate of Florida State University.

About Economic Leadership: Economic Leadership's ability to help its clients is enriched by the broad nature of the work the firm does and the dedication to relationships and success. Clients include state and local governments, public and private companies, academia, economic development organizations, foundations, non-profits and more.

Over the last ten years, the consultancy has provided strategic planning, analysis, and counsel to hundreds of clients, bolstered by decades of experience in state and local economic development, real estate, planning, organizational management, public affairs and analytics. The convergence of this skill set has created an incredible resource for Economic Leadership clients to achieve success.