Pardon Our Dust
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Chris Lloyd, senior vice president and director of McGuireWoods Consulting’s infrastructure and economic development team, was quoted in an Aug. 28 Washington Business Journal article on the transformation of Fairfax County from a Washington, D.C., suburb, to a national economic powerhouse under the leadership of Gerald Gordon.
Gordon announced his retirement from the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority this week. As President and CEO, Gordon worked to make Fairfax County a global player in recruiting business overseas, with a standard for excellence in economic development.
Gordon didn’t rely on incentives to bring businesses to Fairfax County, Lloyd said, but instead focused on the quality of life, Virginia’s lower-tax environment, outstanding schools, good office product and proximity to D.C.
“I think Jerry’s perception was that those were incentives enough, that when you look at the corporate bottom line that those were really the things that motivated corporate decision makers,” he explained. “I would say it was a contrarian view. Jerry had and, still to a degree has, a relatively differentiated product.”
Lloyd worked on negotiations to recruit SAIC and Hilton to Fairfax County.