Brandon Bedford

Assistant Director Business Intelligence @Arlington Economic Development

Arlington, VA, US

Spearheading strategic vision of the economic development team to boost economic activity in Arlington, Virginia, a burgeoning innovation hub next to Washington D.C.• Manage 4 full-time staff in marketing, research, CRM, and ongoing strategic initiatives including:o Designing, executing, and expanding the Arlington Innovation Fund, a multi-year initiative that has disbursed over $1.5 million to programs including non-dilutive grants to nine seed-stage tech companies and programming, events, and consulting work to support local entrepreneurs, emphasizing people from backgrounds underrepresented in techo Administering Arlington’s Economic Development Incentive (EDI) portfolio of over $40 million in grant incentives to F500 including Amazon & Nestle,o Managing a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) grant-funded workforce development pilot program that trained 23 people from nontraditional backgrounds to receive SCRUM Certification in 14 weeks to prepare for work in entry-level software development jobso Designing economic & fiscal analyses for county decision makers and internal stakeholder education, including demonstrating the EDI portfolio has generated at least $4 for every incentive dollar paid and adapting team focus driving office demand in a post-COVID market• Writing and managing grants from the state of Virginia and federal government including managing contractors, tracking KPIs, and evaluating program impact, including:o WIOA grant from Virginia Works for software development training programo Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation Regional Innovation grant to launch Starburst National Landing, an aerospace and defense accelerator• Collaborating with Director & Assistant Director of Business Investment on shaping and executing annual workplan, budget, and development for full-time employees through reduced budgets and staffing as local tax revenues shrank

University of Maryland

Master's degree, Public Policy

Emory University

BA, Environmental Studies

School for International Training Panamá

Tropical Ecology, Marine Ecosystems, and Biodiversity Conservation

Beijing Normal University

Introductory Mandarin Language and History of Qing Dynasty