Speakers

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Welcome

Donzell Taylor is a seasoned professional with over 40 years of experience in the building construction industry. He began his distinguished career with Welty Building Company in 1991, initially serving in a project management role. Under the mentorship of Jerry Welty, Don was appointed President and CEO of the company in 1996. During his tenure as CEO, Don has transformed Welty Building Company into one of the largest construction management and related professional services firms in Northeast Ohio. His leadership and vision have been instrumental in the company’s growth and success. Mr. Taylor’s mission has always been to create an extraordinary client building experience. To achieve this, Welty has adopted lean construction methods aimed at maximizing customer value and minimizing waste, resulting in millions of dollars in savings for clients. Donzell Taylor’s commitment to excellence and innovation continues to drive Welty Building Company forward, solidifying its reputation as an industry leader.

Key Findings

Katie Meehan is the Manager of Site Strategies at Team NEO, where she leads collaborative efforts with
JobsOhio and regional partners to strengthen Northeast Ohio’s portfolio of competitive sites and
buildings. Over the past four years, she has advanced data-driven strategies in site and location analysis
to help communities and developers position properties for business expansion and attraction—driving
investment and job creation across the 14-county region.

A Cleveland native and Ohio University alumna, Katie holds dual degrees in International Business and
Global Studies. Her foundation in intercultural communication and public-sector experience inform her
collaborative approach to fostering sustainable, impactful growth throughout the region.

Lightning Talks

Katie is an Ohio Certified Economic Developer serving as the Economic Development Manager for the City of Hudson, where she leads strategic initiatives to attract and retain employers, ensuring a strong and diverse income tax base. She has overseen Hudson’s SiteOhio Authentication process for a 90-acre site envisioned as Hudson Innovation Park, a future hub for commercial growth. Before joining the public sector, Katie worked in private industry as a CPA, serving as an auditor with Deloitte & Touche and later as Assistant Controller for a private equity–backed medical supplies and equipment provider.

Everyone knows that Rick has a passion for old vacant buildings.  But not just exploring them – doing something about them.  For the past decade, Rick has been working in the public, private, and non-profit sides of real estate development in Cleveland, to help transform our city into a dense, connected, and vibrant place for all Clevelanders. 

Arriving in Cleveland in 2015 as Brownfield and Special Projects Program Manager for the City of Cleveland Department of Economic Development, Rick actively engaged in financial assistance and modelling of incentives for real estate transactions, focused on the revitalization of environmentally compromised, structurally obsolete, and underutilized properties.  In 2020, he left the City to work in the CDC system as Vice President, later Managing Director, of MidTown Cleveland, handling real estate from acquisitions to development processes and financing.  Rick also worked for Cohen and Company, consulting on Opportunity Zone and Tax Increment Financing projects, and advising on financial models, deal structures, and processes related to federal, state and local incentives.    

Before Cleveland, Rick attended graduate school at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate and subsequently spent two and half years working for New York City’s Housing Preservation Department as a lending officer for affordable housing subsidy programs.  A graduate of The Ohio State University, Rick majored in history, but spent most of his time community organizing. He has years of experience knocking doors for political campaigns and eventually worked for Governor Ted Strickland in the Ohio Department of Public Safety. 

Born and raised in Tiffin, Ohio,  Rick is a vegetable gardener, a bike rider, an amateur sailor, and active in his block club and community.  He is also active in ULI and a board member of Venture for America’s Cleveland Chapter.  Rick, his wife Emily, and two daughters live in Ohio City with a small black cat and 10,000 bees. 

Jason offers a rare combination of public sector insight and strategic consulting that sets him apart in Northeast Ohio’s legal landscape. As a Shareholder at Roetzel and Director of Roetzel Consulting Solutions, he guides public entities, private developers, and corporate clients through complex legal and political environments with precision and creativity.

With over a decade of experience in local government, including serving as Chief of Staff to two Summit County Executives, Jason has led countywide efforts in infrastructure, economic development, and intergovernmental affairs. He delivers more than legal advice; he provides actionable strategies grounded in a deep understanding of local dynamics and stakeholder priorities.

Stephen MacKenzie is the President and CEO of the Stark Economic Development Board and Strengthening Stark, responsible for advancing economic development to grow and sustain prosperity in Stark County, Ohio.

He has spent 30 years in economic development organizations in Nova Scotia, Connecticut, Ontario and now Stark County. Prior to joining the SEDB he held the position of President & CEO of Invest WindsorEssex; a full-service economic development corporation serving Windsor and Essex County Ontario. In the seven and a half years under his leadership the IWE team completed fifty-eight (58) FDI projects generating investment of $5.5 billion and 5,424 jobs. The Business Retention and Expansion program generated an additional $3.1 billion and 4,419 jobs while the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Center generated $4.9 million in investment and facilitated the creation of 3,696 jobs.

Previously he served as the Executive Director of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region and held the position of Senior Vice President of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center. Before joining CERC, he was the Director, Economic Development in Stamford Connecticut. In Halifax, Stephen was a Senior Executive Major Projects for the Nova Scotia Department of Economic Development’s Investment and Trade Division. Previously he spent four years with the TD Bank and later served in sales and marketing functions at different organizations in both Canada and Belgium. Stephen has been a part-time lecturer at European University and Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

He received a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia,
completed his MBA at European University in Belgium, and is a graduate of the University of
Oklahoma Economic Development Institute. He is a member of the International Advisory
Committee of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), and a Board member
for the Canada-United States Business Association (CUSBA), Team NEO, Visit Canton, the
Stark Education Partnership and the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Dan Pratt, P.E., P.G. is a Senior Engineer for Geotechnical Services and the Operations Manager for Terracon’s newly opened Akron, Ohio office. He has 16 years of diverse geotechnical and environmental engineering experience, primarily in Northern Ohio and the Appalachian Basin. His project experience includes power generation and transmission, oil and gas, slope stability, commercial, mixed use, transportation, alternative energy, and industrial projects. His responsibilities include project management, developing and coordinating geotechnical subsurface exploration programs, interpreting field and lab data to characterize the subsurface, performing engineering analyses using a variety of techniques and software, developing engineering recommendations, forensic field review of site conditions, preparation of cost estimates, and client development. Dan is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio and a registered Professional Geologist in the State of Pennsylvania.

Joan Chase is Vice President at the Fund for Our Economic Future, where she oversees the execution of the Fund’s strategic direction, monitors performance across its portfolio of initiatives, and leads the organization’s “jobs to people” strategy—advancing job access through the Job Hubs framework to drive economic growth in places with concentrations of existing talent, infrastructure, and civic alignment. She also serves as a loaned executive to Power Up Local, a venture of the Fund that accelerates clean energy projects through collaboration and local investment.

A seasoned economic development and real estate professional, Joan brings extensive experience in strategic planning, site selection, and nonprofit advisory. Before joining the Fund, she served as Senior Manager at Allegro Real Estate Brokers & Advisors, leading strategic advisory work for government, nonprofit, and corporate clients. She previously held leadership roles at DigitalC, the Cleveland International Fund, and the Greater Cleveland Partnership, and began her career in management consulting at Accenture.

Joan serves on the boards of the Site Readiness for Good Jobs Fund, Positive Education Program, and Cleveland State University’s Euclid Avenue Development Corporation. She holds an M.S. in Urban Studies with a concentration in Economic Development from Cleveland State University and a B.A. in Economics from Case Western Reserve University. She lives in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood with her husband, twin sons, and a very silly dog in a house they are slowly renovating.

Keynote

Wendell Robinson leads ROCK’s economic development and public-facing activities for the group’s growing Cleveland, Ohio presence. ROCK is the For-More-Than-Profit Family Office for the Gilberts and their Family of Companies. The Family of Companies includes Rocket Mortgage, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bedrock Development and more than 100 entities collaborating to maximize positive impact for the businesses and people in the communities they serve for generations to come. 

Starting as a Mortgage Banker and then moving to the Banker Training Team to lead Quicken Loans’ (now Rocket Mortgage) effort for the development, regulatory approval and implementation of its licensed training curriculum, Wendell has been with the ROCK Family of Companies since 2010. In 2019 he moved to the Government Affairs team and led the 50 State Government Relations practice until May 2023 when he joined the ROCK team. Beyond his focus on development and organizational relations, Wendell supports the Family of Companies’ national portfolio through expertise in Licensing, Compliance, Education and Tax. His professional background includes responsibilities as a business owner, manager, writer, speaker, advocate, and project leader. Immediately prior to coming to the ROCK family, Wendell led an advisory consultancy serving professional athletes, as well as the entertainment and political arenas. 

A native Clevelander, Wendell is a Cleveland State University graduate. His wife Kathleen, an accomplished pastry chef, has appeared on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. The Robinsons live in Mentor, Ohio where they reside with their daughter Paige. 

Darin is the Global Leader for Location Strategy at Deloitte. In his career, he has guided hundreds of companies through their most challenging footprint and asset deployment issues. He is known for generating strategies that transform structural costs, improve access to talent, and penetrate new global markets by optimizing location and footprint decisions. His experience extends throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe. Darin is actively engaged as the lead engagement partner on several of our clients’ most strategic location strategy projects. He was the site selection leader for the largest investment project in US history, a $100B semiconductor fab campus that announced in October 2022. Additionally, Darin has led numerous large capex manufacturing site selection and negotiations efforts across industries including automotive, steel, chemical, battery, solar, wind, hydrogen, food, data center, and others.

Closing Remarks

Camille Billups, Managing Director, leads Team NEO’s site strategy work—developing and executing initiatives to identify, position, and advance commercial and industrial properties that align with market demand. Her work strengthens the region’s pipeline of competitive sites and supports faster, more successful project outcomes. 

Camille is also responsible for closing large, complex projects that lead to the attraction of domestic and international companies to Northeast Ohio. She manages client relationships and executes projects by connecting prospective businesses with a variety of financial and non-financial resources.  In addition, Camille leads Team NEO’s professional service engagement strategy. She works with firms and demonstrates the value the economic development network can bring to their clients.

Camille joined Team NEO with 8 years of deal execution experience in investment banking. While at Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase) and Societe Generale, she structured and helped to sell over $600M in Asset Backed Securitization bonds in a variety of industries.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management from Albion College and a Master of Public Administration degree from Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Camille is civically engaged with a focus on helping children.