Blog

By David Allen, Investor Campaign Chair and Executive Vice President, McKinstry

The Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County (EDC) has earned its role as the leading economic development organization in the region through hard work, innovation, expertise, and collaboration. I have been involved with the organization for almost eight years and during that time, we have built the organization into an effective, successful business development engine that works on behalf of the King County area to grow our economy.

We have a pipeline of 200 businesses that are considering adding jobs in this region and we are working tirelessly to influence those decisions. We have a nationally recognized staff of industry cluster and economic development experts. We are currently developing business accelerators, guiding the performance of multiple Innovation Partnership Zones, and creating new economic development programs targeting emerging industries. All of these accomplishments have been made by using a modest amount of resources—provided by 100 public and private sector partners—as efficiently as possible.

It is now time to take this organization to the next level. That is why I have agreed to chair the 2012 the EDC Investor Campaign.

The EDC needs the involvement of much more than the 100 committed members that we have today if we are going to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us. Think what we could do to truly impact our local economy and add jobs if instead of 100 members we had 200, or 300 or even 500 members. I will be leading a committee in 2012 that will be reaching out to private sector leaders to engage them in what we are doing, to ask that they share their insights and networks to grow our regional economy, and to join us as we move this organization and our economy to the next level.

To facilitate this campaign, the EDC has hired The Harper Haines Group to help develop a fundraising strategy and assist in the execution of the campaign. Now that we’re past the initial “start-up” phase, you will be hearing from us soon. And if you’re interested in the important work the EDC does, and don’t want to wait for us to reach out to you, please contact Jeff Marcell our President and CEO.

It’s an exciting time for our region and for the EDC and we look forward to your partnership as we accelerate the growth of our economy.