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Jason Bechtold
Assistant City Manager, Westerville, Ohio, USA

Jason Bechtold is the Assistant City Manager for Westerville, Ohio. Prior to this, he served as the economic development director for the City of Westerville, a position he’d held since December of 2009. Bechtold has built a program in Westerville that actively fosters relationships to attract, retain and create business opportunities in the community and, most importantly, expand the local tax base. Prior to his employment with the City of Westerville, Bechtold worked in local government in the cities of Gahanna and Delaware, Ohio, focusing on economic and community development and planning.

Bechtold serves as the Vice President of the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (MODE), a membership organization of local economic development organizations from throughout the eleven county Columbus Region.

Bechtold earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Baldwin Wallace University and master’s degrees in public administration and management as well as city and regional planning from The Ohio State University. Jason and wife Jennifer reside in Westerville and enjoy their two beautiful daughters.

Robert Bell
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

Robert Bell is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, where he heads its research, analysis and content development activities. He directs the multi-stage analysis of communities for the annual Intelligent Community Awards program and authors the in-depth profiles of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities that are core to ICF's mission. Robert developed and leads the Intelligent Community Master Class and Community Accelerator programs, as well as ICF's advisory services for communities, and is a frequent speaker at municipal and telecom events. More

Alison Burgess
Manager, Corporate Initiatives, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada

Alison has been the manager of corporate initiatives for the Regional Municipality of Durham since April, 2019. She is an effective communicator, skilled in partnership development and relationship management.  Prior to working at the Durham Region, she was the Manager of Research Partnerships at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), as well as a Research Associate at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and at the National Research Council Canada. 

She is also a part-time Professor at Durham College in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. 

Michelle Crandall
City Manager, City of Hilliard, Ohio, USA

Michelle Crandall was sworn in as the City of Hilliard’s first City Manager on Jan. 1, 2020. Before joining the City of Hilliard, Crandall had worked for the City of Dublin since 1992, starting as an intern and then management assistant in the City Manager’s office. She subsequently served in various leadership roles, including Director of Administrative Services, Deputy City Manager and Assistant City Manager.

She is a professionally trained facilitator who is actively involved in the International City/County Management Association, Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, and other organizations.

She earned her master’s degree in public administration from The Ohio State University’s School of Public Policy and Management and her bachelor’s degree in political science from Wittenberg University. She also completed the Washington Semester Program at American University and the Executive Leadership Development Program (LEAD) from University of Virginia.

Peter Cresse
President, Entropy Inc.

Peter Cresse leads Entropy, Inc., a systems and technology firm, established in 2003. Peter is a technology executive who has led commercial efforts internationally and domestically. At Fortune 50 firms such as GE, GTE, Scientific-Atlanta (Cisco) and Intelsat, Peter led revenue focused programs for innovative technology offers. For startups, Peter grew business in partnership with clients – streaming for Inlet (Cisco), data integration for CloverDX, cybersecurity for AssuredTek and data visualization for the Entropy social media platform. Peter also works with founders who bring new ideas to market and would like to grow revenue quickly with focused programs and investment.

Peter has lived and worked in Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, and many US cities. He has also traveled and done business in over fifty countries, with major telecom and media technology system rollouts in Russia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. Peter received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and his Master’s degree from Central Michigan University. He also served in leadership technology roles as a Captain in the U.S Air Force. He can be reached at [email protected].

Wendy Dupley
President, Economic Developers Association of Canada; Principal, WeDu Consulting

Brittany Dupree
Manager Communications, Strategy and Engagement, City of Prospect, South Australia, Australia

At City of Prospect Brittany Dupree leads the Communication, Engagement and Strategy team with more than 13 years of media, communication, advocacy and community engagement experience across the private, public and not-for-profit industries. Brittany started in print journalism as a cadet working for rural mastheads before relocating back to Adelaide for a community journalism role with News Limited. After then spending three years at SA Health promoting its hospital upgrades, Aboriginal, women and children and forensic mental health services, Brittany was inspired by medical professionals to volunteer in East Africa. Spending time in Rwanda and Tanzania sparked Brittany’s desire to further contribute to complex social justice issues and she moved to Melbourne where for more than five years she worked and advocated in the homelessness sector. The global pandemic brought Brittany back to Adelaide where she spent another year in health driving the community engagement strategy for Southern Adelaide Local Health Network. Brittany considers herself a community enthusiast and is a passionate storyteller. 


Terry Emery
City Manager, Marysville, Ohio, USA

Terry was appointed City Manager for the City of Marysville on January 1, 2016. He was previously appointed as City Administrator for Marysville on May 31, 2011. Prior to joining the Marysville team, he held the position of Director of Public Service for the City of Gahanna, Ohio.

Additional experience includes serving as the Director of Public Safety/Service for the City of Greenville, Ohio. Terry is a graduate of the Ohio State University.

Laurie Guthrie, EcD, BIS
Civic Innovation Strategist / Smart City Project Manager City of Fredericton

As a long-serving employee of the City of Fredericton, Laurie Guthrie has worked primarily in the field of economic development - spearheading various strategic initiatives to cultivate economic growth and earn Fredericton’s brand equity as a ‘Smart City.’

As an economic developer, she steered a consultant and 250 community stakeholders in the development of Fredericton’s economic development strategy - resulting in a five-year secondment to the city’s economic development agency. She facilitated strategy implementation, and led the agency’s rebranding, development of a regional investment attraction strategy and creation of task forces to drive priority sector growth.

In 2018, Laurie returned to the City to project manage Fredericton’s participation in Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge, competing nationally as a top ten finalist among 200 communities. Following the challenge, she identified strategic opportunities; and developed a proactive strategy to support Fredericton’s ongoing ‘smart city’ efforts.

Laurie’s current work includes the co-design of a civic innovation living lab, Boost Fredericton, to strengthen Fredericton’s role as an early adopter of new technologies & edge applications, solve smart city challenges, and drive economic development for the benefit of the municipal corporation and community. Efforts are also focused on furthering Fredericton’s digital evolution as ‘Atlantic Canada’s 5G Centre of Innovation.’ As a first of its kind in New Brunswick, the lab has received national and international attention as a civic innovation best practice through various engagements.

Dr. Norman Jacknis
Senior Fellow, Intelligent Community Forum

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities. Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. 

Todd Jackson
President, Medina Fiber

Todd Jackson is the President of Medina Fiber & Lit Fiber, both of which are Lit Communities companies. He is responsible for the market deployment of each network and oversees and executes all management responsibilities related to network operations, sales, and marketing.

As President of Medina Fiber and Lit Fiber, Todd is resistible for ensuring the networks are planned, engineered, constructed, maintained, and operated to Lit’s high standards of quality and reliability. In addition, Todd has extensive experience in the fast-growing community Broadband market, including fostering relationships with community partners, project partners, and local government officials.

Throughout his career, Todd has helped organizations realize business value through strategic technology and broadband investments - including creating WēConnect, the nation's first municipally-owned and operated community data center and fiber network. WēConnect is a community economic and social development platform that played a crucial role in helping Westerville receive recognition as a 2019 & 2020 Top7 Intelligent Community by the Intelligent Community Forum. In addition, this experience has given Todd the insight to help communities leverage fiber broadband for its economic, social, and cultural value within their community.

Prior to joining the Lit Community of networks, Todd served the City of Westerville, Ohio, for 22 years, 18 as its Chief Information Officer. Todd’s career began with GIS and led to providing strategic perspective and leadership in organizational technology, workforce development, and significant community capital improvement investments. 

Todd and his wife Jennifer recently moved to Medina, Ohio, after living in Central Ohio for 30 years. They enjoy exploring Northeast Ohio’s wineries, traveling the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky, and visiting their adult children, Noelle and Josh, who have started their own families in Central Ohio.

John G. Jung
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

ICF co-founder John G. Jung originated the Intelligent Community concept and continues to serve as the Forum's leading visionary. Formerly President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance and Calgary Economic Development Authority, he is a registered professional urban planner, urban designer and economic developer. He leads regular international business missions to US, European, Asian, Indian and Australian cities, and originated the ICF Immersion Lab program. John is a regular speaker at universities and conferences and serves as an advisor to regional and national leaders on Intelligent Community development. More

Paulo Cesar Krauss
Technical Director, Curitiba Agency for Development and Innovation

Paulo Krauss is a journalist with an MBA in Marketing. Former superintendent for Communications at Curitiba City Hall and former CMO at Copel – Paraná State Energy Company. Since 2019, Paulo is the technical director at Curitiba Agency for Development and Innovation, where he participates in the Pinhão Valley, a movement that connects public bodies, universities, supporting institutions, industries and companies, startups, and investors in the city’s innovation ecosystem.

Rob McCann
Founder, Clearcable Networks; President, Hamilton Technology Centre

Rob McCann is the founder of Clearcable Networks and the President of the Hamilton Technology Centre. He has been working with advanced broadband service deployments in mid-market and rural cable and telephone systems since 1998. He is responsible for building and maintaining technical, network, and application intelligence. Rob works closely with several carriers, cable systems, municipalities, and network service providers in Canada, the US, and the Caribbean providing them with the technology, integration, and business practices required to effectively operate voice, video, and data services in the changing broadband service provider industry.

Most recently Rob represented Clearcable as an inaugural board member of The Intelligent Community Forum Canada, a member of the Seneca College Communications Advisory Committee, and previously has served as a Director with the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Ontario Chapter, a contributor to the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee, and a frequent keynote speaker at the Canadian Cable System Alliance, Canadian Independent Telephone Association, and National Cable Telephone Cooperative annual trade shows.

Rob’s active projects include work with ICF recognized Intelligent Communities by chairing the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Digital Infrastructure Working Group and providing technical insight to Sarnia’s Bluewater Regional Network. He was named the Canadian Independent Telephone Association’s 2016 Supplier of the Year and holds degrees in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and Economics from McMaster University.

Doug McCollough
CIO, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA

As CIO of the City of Dublin, Ohio, Doug McCollough has worked to connect people to opportunities, and promote change in initiatives ranging from Smart and Connected Cities, IT Workforce Development, expanding broadband access, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, and Blockchain in Government.

He speaks and advises as a Subject Matter Expert and advocate on technical subjects, diversity, equity, inclusion, and using technology for economic development. Doug has held positions within the State of Ohio Departments of Public Safety, Commerce, Industrial Commission, and Medicaid.

Dana McDaniel
Former City Manager, Dublin, Ohio, USA

Former City Manager Dana McDaniel served as the chief administrative and law enforcement officer of the City of Dublin, responsible to City Council for the day-to-day operations for the City. Other responsibilities included advising Council regarding the financial status and future needs of the City, reporting to Council on the general operating of City departments, divisions, offices, boards, commissions, bureaus and agencies, as well as exercising leadership in the development of City projects.

Dana is actively engaged in the regional technology sectors of central Ohio as he leads a strategy to develop an ecosystem for new startup companies and technologies. The city is at the forefront of constructing intelligent infrastructure to support the emerging industry around connected and autonomous vehicles, and continues to build upon its successes in emerging industry clusters such as technology, healthcare, automotive and R&D.

Dublin is a two-time Top7 Intelligent Community and home to a Global Institute for the Development of the Intelligent Community, which is spearheading creation of Intelligent Ohio.

Lindsay Miller
President, Lit Consulting

Lindsay Miller leads Lit Communities’ collaboration with local governments and stakeholders as they seek to understand their unique local broadband landscapes and foster public-private partnerships for broadband network deployment and expansion.

As President of Lit Consulting, Lindsay is responsible for ensuring that all community projects meet Lit’s high standards for quality and timeliness. Lindsay has extensive experience in the fast-growing community broadband space, including engagements with local, regional, and state clients across urban, rural, and suburban markets.

Lindsay joined Lit Communities from the Columbus, Ohio, office of law firm Ice Miller LLP, where she had been a Partner and Vice Chair of the firm’s Government Law Group. She also formerly served as Executive Director of Connect Ohio, and Broadband Research and Planning Counsel for its parent nonprofit, Connected Nation.

She holds a law degree and master’s degree in public policy and management from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Kentucky. Lindsay lives with her family in historic German Village in downtown Columbus, where they enjoy exploring Ohio’s ever-growing capital city, especially its impressive food scene.

Sophia Mohr
Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, Central Ohio Transit Authority

As the first Chief Innovation and Technology Officer for the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA), Sophia brought a keen understanding of the rapid transformation of the global transportation industry.

Since joining COTA in September 2019, Sophia has focused on expanding the use of technology to reimagine and advance mobility. She has played a key role in rolling out the first bus on-demand service in North America, which was honored in 2021 by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America with the Best of Mobility On-Demand Award. Sophia is also instrumental in an effort to share artificial intelligence data regarding traffic, infrastructure and connected vehicle data across Central Ohio to improve safety. In November 2021, her team launched COTA’s digital payment system which improves equity and access for transit customers.

Sophia serves on several boards and committees:

• ITS America’s Mobility on Demand Committee, Chair
• Ohio intellectual Property Alliance, Member
• Buckeye Engineering Women in Executive Leadership, Marketing Committee Co-Chair
• The Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research, External Advisory Committee Member

Sophia comes to COTA from the private sector, having worked 17 years at NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway company headquartered in Columbus. She joined NetJets in 2002 as a business analyst and became the company’s first director of product development, and then its first vice president of owner experience design and strategy. Prior to NetJets, Sophia started her career as a human factors design engineer for IBM, then served as a consultant and manager for a global technology and consulting company.

A Columbus native, Sophia earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and systems engineering from The Ohio State University, with a specialization in designing systems and services for people.

Dr. Viet Long Nguyen
Director of the Science and Technology Department, Binh Duong, Vietnam

Dr. Nguyen is a mathematical engineer and PhD in management sciences, who served the Director of International Relations & Strategy for Becamex Conglomerate Group, one of the leading Vietnamese developers in industrial parks, infrastructure & urban area. He is former Director of the Smart City Office of Binh Duong province (Vietnam), and now Dr Long is the Director of Departement of Science and Technology, Binh Duong Province.

Dr. Nguyen is a former member of the Scientific Board of University Paris - Dauphine, and the Academic Assembly of Paris Sciences & Letters. He has been lecturing and conducting research internationally in the U.S., France, Germany, China, Vietnam, etc., particularly in the field of Intercultural Management.

Megan O'Callaghan
City Manager, Dublin, Ohio, USA

Megan O’Callaghan is Dublin’s sixth city manager, a role she assumed on October 1, 2022. O’Callaghan has been serving the City of Dublin since 2014, when she was hired as the City’s Public Service Director.

Prior to her appointment to city manager, she served as the City’s deputy city manager/chief finance and development officer, deputy city manager/chief operating officer and director of public works. During her time in those roles, she oversaw nearly all of the City’s departments and divisions including Engineering, Street & Utilities Operations, Fleet & Facilities Management, Parks and Recreation, and Asset Management. O’Callaghan was responsible for planning and executing the City’s Capital Improvements Program, which included many highlights such as her passionate involvement, oversight and project management of the Dublin Link pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Scioto River. She also formulated and executed strategic plans in areas including Finance, Economic Development, Planning, and Transportation & Mobility, a new division she created in 2020 to advance the City’s Connected Dublin initiatives and align them with the transportation management strategies.

Before joining the Dublin team, O’Callaghan worked at the City of Columbus and Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). She is a graduate of The Ohio State University, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree. She attended Capital University Law School, where she earned her juris doctorate and graduated magna cum laude.

Megan is a member of the American Public Works Association and serves on the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering Advisory Board at The Ohio State University. In November 2019. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine appointed Megan to the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Surveyors. She has earned numerous awards throughout her career, including being named Engineer of the Year by the Central Ohio Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2021.

In the community, O’Callaghan fosters rich professional relationships with many City of Dublin partners including Franklin, Union and Delaware Counties, ODOT and the City of Columbus. She is Vice President of the Northwest 33 Council of Governments, a member of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) and serves on the Dublin Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees and the Dublin City Schools Business Advisory Council.

Lucienne Pears
Vice President, Economic and Business Development Kitson & Partners

Lucienne Pears is currently the Vice President of Economic and Business Development for real estate developer Kitson & Partners’ sustainable city: Babcock Ranch.

Lucienne attended Salisbury University on Maryland’s eastern shore and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Geography with a concentration in Urban and Regional Planning. Lucienne entered the professional world in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area and spent her first few years working with environmental planning and conservation.

Since 2002, Lucienne has been a resident of the Gulf Coast of Florida. After spending nearly a decade as a consultant with civil engineering firms in land use entitlement, construction, acquisition, and development projects, Lucienne launched her Economic Development career in Marion County, creating the office of Sustainable Growth. In 2010, Lucienne was recruited back to the Gulf Coast in to work in the Charlotte County Economic Development Office. In January 2016, Lucienne took the helm as Director, reporting directly to the Board of County Commissioners.

During her years in Charlotte County’s EDO, Lucienne was recognized twice (2017 & 2018) as one of the Top 50 Economic Developers in North America by Consultant Connect, a consortium of site selection consultants, economic developers, and industry CEOs. She has also been honored as a Person to Watch by Florida Trend magazine. Under Lucienne’s leadership, the EDO secured several key-commitments: the sale of Murdock Village, over $2 billion in capital investment in Charlotte County, and over $3.2 million in grant funding for infrastructure improvements to support economic development. In addition, during her tenure, the EDO received numerous awards from the FEDC, SEDC and IEDC for innovation in economic development, marketing, and strategy.

Lucienne’s notable accomplishments and community involvement caught the eye of real estate developer Kitson & Partners, who had recently launched an 18,000-acre project to build America’s first sustainable city. In January 2019, Lucienne was invited to join Kitson & Partners at Babcock Ranch as the VP of Economic and Business Development. In the short time that Lucienne has been a part of Babcock Ranch, she has led the team that secured $8 million in State funding for the construction of a Southwest Florida Regional Emergency Shelter and athletic field house.

Lucienne is currently involved in several initiatives that are part of an economic development strategy that will reposition the Southwest Florida Region in America’s mind as not just a tourist destination, but an education destination with a strong workforce pipeline and academic opportunities, and a business destination where entrepreneurship and efforts towards technological advances are welcomed.

Dr. Tuan Anh Pham
Director, Binh Duong Province Smart City Office

Dr. Tuan Anh Pham is the Group Chief Information Officer, Founder & Director of Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center, and Executive Assistant to the Chairman at Becamex IDC Corporation - Vietnam's leading industrial infrastructure developer. He is also the Director of the Binh Duong Province Smart City Office, which is part of the Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee. Dr. Pham obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at INRIA Sophia Antipolis and I3S, University of Cote d'Azur, France. His professional interests include Industry 4.0 Technologies, Smart Applications, Digital Transformation Strategy, and Implementation. With more than 15 years of experience in the industry, Dr. Pham is a frequent guest speaker, and panelist at many technological, business and economic conferences in Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and Asia.

Peter Portheine
Director, Eindhoven International Project Office

Peter Portheine is director of the Eindhoven International Project Office (EIPO), guiding and supporting regions and cities around the world on Triple Helix collaboration, Smart Cities and socio-economic development strategies. He also acts as program director Smart Cities Brainport and served as an elected member of the Provincial Council of North Brabant.
With EIPO, Peter Portheine is working closely together with Binh Duong province (Vietnam) on implementing Binh Duong’s new socio-economic development strategy as a member of the Binh Duong Triple Helix Advisory Board and the Binh Duong Smart Region Executive Committee.

As an entrepreneur by nature, he has a long experience working and starting new businesses in ICT. Since 2009, he is working for the Eindhoven Brainport Development organization, focusing on programs on Smart Health and Smart Cities. He also is co-founder of the Brainport Health Innovation Network and the Brainport Smart District.

He has a strong focus on integrated socio-economic development and public- private entrepreneurship, as well as a passion for innovation and technology.

Robert Ranc
Deputy City Manager, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA

Robert Ranc serves as the Deputy City Manager/Chief Operating Officer for the City of Dublin, Ohio.  His responsibilities include executive oversight of Dublin’s Engineering, Public Service, Asset Management & Support Services, Facilities & Fleet, and Parks and Recreation functions.  Prior to his currently role in Dublin, Robert served as Deputy City Manager for the City of Burleson, Texas, Assistant City Administrator for Lehi City, Utah, and Economic Development Project Coordinator for Ogden City, Utah.  Robert also served in the United States Air Force as a Persian-Farsi Linguist.  Robert holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master of public administration degree, both from Brigham Young University.

Paul Skillen
Manager, Business & Innovation, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Paul has a 10-year career with Sunshine Coast Council, currently as the Manager, Business & Innovation.  The role sees Paul managing a multi-disciplinary team across some key Council services, including procurement and contracting, smart cities development and commercial analysis.

The role sees Paul leading or significantly contributing to many of the projects that are central to the Sunshine Coast’s progression as an intelligent community. 

These include development of the Sunshine Coast Airport; development of the Maroochydore City Centre and City Hall building; Sunshine Coast 15 MW Solar Farm; and the Sunshine Coast International Broadband Network Project.

Paul manages the procurement capability within Council, which has an annual procurement and contracting spend of circa A$300 million. Prior to moving to Local Government, Paul had a career with State Government Service Agencies and immediately prior to joining Council he was engaged at Queensland University of Technology, where he undertook an academic role in the Faculty of Law.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Master of Management, Grad. Dip Legal Practice and he is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Jim Stifler
Chief Economic Officer, City of Hudson, Ohio, USA

As a 25-year resident of Hudson, Jim Stifler has chosen to perform his encore career as the City of Hudson’s Chief Economic Officer. After a successful 33-year career as a Wall Street executive, Jim is able to showcase his extensive private sector experiences and use his strong ties in the community to move the City forward.

In addition to attraction and retention, Jim provides strategic oversight to Hudson’s rapidly growing, city - owned, fiber-optic broadband business.

Jim’s most gratifying work as Chief Economic Officer has been in conjunction with Hudson’s Chief Innovation Officer by leading the charge to become an Intelligent Community, and to expand and capitalize on the innovation bias Hudson is blessed to have. It was a tremendous boost to be named to the ICF’s Smart21 Intelligent Communities for 2018.

To compliment all of these efforts Jim works with innovative start-ups and scale-ups that have qualified for mentoring support at JumpStart Inc. JumpStart is a public /private business acceleration program in Northeast Ohio, that is now 2 decades strong.

Dan Taylor
Chief Executive Officer, Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership

Dan is known as a leader and innovator within the economic development community. His high energy, creativity, and innovative approach have helped communities transform towards reaching their highest potential. His Toronto-based private sector, and entrepreneurial, creative marketing background laid the foundation for his unique approach to economic development.

Dan helped lead the reinvention of Prince Edward County with its focus on wine, culture & gastronomy, and the creative rural economy. As President & CEO of Peterborough Economic Development, he rebuilt and restructured the organization, supported tourism initiatives, and led Nuclear, Aviation, and Clean Tech Water cluster development. As a catalyst in Innisfil, he developed the strategy to launch the development of a start-up ecosystem anchored by the DMZ Innisfil Accelerator and was a team member in visioning the future forward city development called The Orbit.

Dan is looking forward to helping take Sarnia-Lambton and its unique combination of energy, sustainability, manufacturing, its multifaceted agricultural industry, and the rest of the economy towards the changes, challenges, and opportunities the 21st century is bringing and demanding.

Dan is extremely excited to be working with such a high-caliber and professional team at the Sarnia Lambton Economic Partnership and looks forward to supporting and leading future transformation opportunities.

Farlie Taylor
Director City Strategy, Community and Culture, City of Prospect

Farlie Taylor is the Director City Strategy, Community and Culture at the City of Prospect driving a community-centred approach to strategic planning and capacity building, creating an engaged and innovative community through engagement. A recent addition to the City of Prospect team, Farlie was previously the Group Manager Community Connections with the City of Burnside. She is a Non-Executive Director of SEDA College SA, and is the Vice-Chair of the Community Managers Network with Local Government Professionals SA. She has previous experience as the Chief of Staff for Senator Sean Edwards, and as an Executive Manager with St Johns Ambulance, where among other things, she led the marketing team, internal and external communications, brand management and media enquiries.

Tseng Chao-Hsiung
Chief Secretary of Research, Development and Evaluation, Commission of New Taipei City Government

Tseng Chao-Hsiung is the Chief Secretary of Research, Development and Evaluation for the New Taipei City Government. He has had a long career in service to New Taipei City. Before attaining his current position, he served as Chief of Criminal Investigation, Police Office in the National Policy Agency for the Ministry of the Interior. Tseng Chao-Hsiung also held the roles of Specialist of Department of Transportation, Chief Secretary of Department of Rapid Transit Systems and Acting Director of Information Management Center, all for the New Taipei City Government.

Lou Zacharilla
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

Louis Zacharilla helped found the Intelligent Community movement. He is the developer of the Top Seven and Intelligent Community of the Year Awards programs. He helps the New York-based think tank communicate the importance of developing viable and innovative communities and cities audiences worldwide and oversees the new Institutes of the Intelligent Community Forum around the world. He is a frequent keynote speaker and a moderator at conferences and events. He appears regularly in the media to discuss the impact of broadband and access technologies on the rebirth of the world’s communities. More