The Isle of Wight-Smithfield-Windsor Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with
Isle of Wight County and the
Towns of Smithfield and Windsor, will present the annual State of the County Breakfast on Tuesday, June 5, 8am, at the Smithfield Center.
Our Guest Speaker will be Rick Weddle.
Rick L. Weddle joined the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance as President and
CEO in April 2016. He leads the operations of a regional marketing organization that
represents 11 municipalities and over 75 private sector investors in the Hampton Roads
region. Prior to joining the Alliance, Rick spent five years as President and CEO of the
Orlando Economic Development Commission and seven years as President and CEO of
North Carolina's Research Triangle Park (RTP). Over the course of his career, Rick has helped
create more than 17,000 jobs with an annual payroll of $800 million, more than $1 billion in
capital investment and 5.3 million square feet of space absorbed.
In his 30 years of transformational leadership in economic development, Rick has delivered
results and economic impacts in major metropolitan economies across the United States.
He is the founding CEO of three startups. He has been incredibly successful in turnarounds,
organization and regional rebranding, and total business model redesign efforts. He has had
an overall career impact of 800+ projects, creating over 80,000 jobs and $9.1B in new
investment for the localities he has served.
Buffet breakfast will be served. Tickets are $18 for chamber members, $20 for non-members.