John B. Sternlicht, JD, CEcD, FM

CEO
Economic Development Association of Skagit County
Mount Vernon, WA


John Sternlicht, attorney, certified economic developer, and IEDC Fellow Member, has served as the CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County in July, 2015. John brings to EDASC senior executive expertise in law, economic development, community relations, public policy, finance, and government relations with a domestic and international focus (he speaks French, German and Spanish). John has over 20 years high-level experience negotiating and executing multi-billion dollar business locations and expansions involving public and private sector financing, higher education, infrastructure including all modes of transportation and legislative initiatives.

Most recently, John served as Economic Development Policy Advisor to King County Executive Dow Constantine, where he worked to bring a regional focus to economic development in the Seattle area. While Senior Director of Strategic Projects for SRI International, a leading nonprofit research institute, John conceived and executed greenfield bioscience projects in Virginia and Michigan involving a total of nearly $50 million in state, local and private financing. John’s careful and strategic oversight ensured that the funding would be sufficient to launch these new ventures. Previously, after ten years in private and public law practice in North Carolina and Virginia, John served eleven years as General Counsel and Policy and Legislative Director of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), acted as Secretary to the VEDP Board of Directors, and also created a statewide program of certification and assistance for rural communities and regions to improve their business attraction and expansion practice.

In 2002, Governor Mark Warner appointed John to serve concurrently as Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade, as a key member of the team that planned and executed on strategies to establish Virginia as the top state for business for its economic development, transportation (primarily port and logistics), legal, commercial and regulatory climate. As Deputy Secretary, Sternlicht orchestrated the development and execution of the statewide economic development strategic plan, oversaw all 15 agency budgets totaling more than $800 million, and directed all agency legislative and regulatory programs. While serving in these positions, Sternlicht provided his expertise in a broad base of activities including human resources, open records, board relations, public finance, procurement, and community relations, and advised most of the 140 cities and counties in Virginia on the best structure for their economic development programs. John was likely the first in the US to institute the process of requiring legal protections for state and local governments providing incentives to companies, and designed many of the incentive programs as well, directed at particular regional needs or industry sectors such as manufacturing (everything from semiconductor chips to corn chips), logistics/distribution, financial services, headquarters, biosciences and IT.

John, who currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and the Washington Economic Developers Association, speaks and writes nationally and abroad on various topics in economic development, including the design, protection and assessment of incentives, economic development practices in the US, the process of negotiation, building public consensus, strategic planning, commercialization and innovation, and others. Originally from Barrington, Rhode Island and raised primarily in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Sternlicht earned his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and studied journalism and communications at the Université de Fribourg in Switzerland on a Rotary International Graduate Fellowship before earning his Juris Doctor at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. He earned his certification in economic development from the International Economic Development Council in 2001, and was named a Fellow Member in 2017.


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