Membership Meeting

Membership Meeting
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SPEAKER CHANGE: Due to unforeseen changes in Nashville Mayor-elect Megan Barry's demanding schedule to transition to take office Sept. 25, she is unable to be the keynote speaker at tomorrow's Membership Meeting. Williamson, Inc. sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience this causes our members. We will invite Megan Barry to speak at a later date.

Join us at our next Membership Meeting to hear from a stellar panel of economic developers to discuss regional economic partnerships during the membership luncheon, Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 11 a.m. in Liberty Hall at The Factory at Franklin, located at 230 Franklin Road. The panel includes:

Courtney Ross
Chief Economic Development Office
Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

Courtney P. Ross is Chief Economic Development Officer for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. Courtney has oversight of the economic development team that acts as the region’s lead marketing agency for economic development, with functions including business recruitment, working with existing Nashville-based firms on expansions, talent initiatives, and international business. Ross works on a day-to-day basis with corporate executives of relocating companies as well as professional site consultants, typically hired by Fortune 500 level clients to advise on relocation investments and locations. Successful relocation and expansion projects in which Ross has been involved include UBS, Asurion, HCA, AIG, LifePoint and numerous others. Courtney has been with the Nashville Chamber since August 2008.

Prior to her role as Chief Economic Development Officer, Ross served as the Vice President of Existing Business where she managed all economic development activities involving existing business retention and expansion in the 10-county Nashville region. These responsibilities included support for CEO-level leadership of existing businesses and assistance for companies interested in expanding in the Nashville area.

Ross’ 14-year economic development career has included positions at Applied Marketing Sciences, an economic development consulting firm and the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce as director of corporate recruitment. In Austin, Ross was responsible for company recruitment to the 5-county Greater Austin region. Her specific target industry sectors were corporate headquarters, back-office facilities, call centers, data centers, biotechnology, healthcare and semiconductor. In addition, she was responsible for several key marketing events for the Greater Austin Chamber Economic Development program including out of market mission trips, incentive negotiations, and regional marketing. Prior to living in Austin, Ms. Ross served as the assistant director at the Memphis Bioworks Foundation. Her responsibilities included recruiting biotech companies to the city’s first biotech research park. Ms. Ross began her economic development career with the State of Tennessee as the deputy director for the Film and Music Commission, recruiting in the film and music industry to the state.

Ross is a native of Memphis, TN and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Courtney, her husband, Jason, and their two children, Jake and Ellie, reside in Nashville.

Matt Wiltshire
Director
Nashville Mayor's Office of Economic and Community Development

Matt Wiltshire is the mayor’s chief economic development official, a post that handles corporate recruitment, incentives to encourage investment and other aspects of job creation. His role includes negotiating controversial incentive deals, providing support to existing businesses, guiding policy that affects development and handling special projects. He has held this position since 2011.

Wiltshire brings 15 years of experience in working with a number of different industries. Wiltshire served as an investment banker with Avondale Partners for six years, assisting corporate clients with raising capital and completing mergers and acquisitions. He led the firm’s efforts in the transportation and manufacturing industries and also worked with healthcare, consumer and technology companies.

Prior to joining Avondale, Wiltshire, a Nashville native, worked as an investment banker for Compass Advisers in New York City, Greenbridge Partners in Greenwich, Conn. and Montgomery / Banc of America Securities in San Francisco and New York City.

Wiltshire has served on several nonprofit boards including Hands On Nashville, the Center for Nonprofit Management, the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, Habitat for Humanity and the Tennessee Justice Center. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in government and environmental studies.