Catherine Timko

Principal/CEO
The Riddle Company
Wilmington, DE

Catherine Timko, founder/CEO, The Riddle Company Catherine has more than 25 years of experience in economic and real estate marketing. More than just promises of success, Catherine delivers demonstrated success in positioning communities and local economies to effectively compete. Catherine has completed retail & business attraction assignments in almost every major market on the east coast including Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Prince George’s County, Stafford County, Atlanta and Miami. Her work is transformative, influencing the restructuring of community economies, consumer and market perception and resulting in significant new investment. Her market positioning work for client communities has resulted in the attraction of more than 350 businesses and over 3.75 million square feet of new retail, the creation of over 3,250 jobs and more than $75 million in market exposure. She has developed a reputation for her analytical approach and ability to connect communities, capital and companies.

Catherine has developed initiatives and tools to support retail and real estate development. She was one of the founders of the Urban Retail Performance Metric with the Brookings Institution that has been commercialized through several of the large demographic data companies. She launched the inaugural Survey of The Impact of BIDs on Retail. She is widely published on issues related to urban retail development and attraction and a frequent presenter on best practices. She has also been a guest lecturer at several masters programs in real estate including at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers Business School and the University of Maryland. Catherine is an active member of IEDC, ULI. and ICSC, and served as the Dean for Economic Development for ICSC Institute for Shopping Centers.