An Inside Look: Feat. Alex Frei of Cushman & Wakefield

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Alex FreiAlex Frei is the Director of the Business Incentives Practice (BIP) within the Global Business Consulting (GBC) Group at Cushman & Wakefield.  BIP is a specialty practice within GBC focusing on cost mitigation strategies as part of location strategy in the form of state, local and other economic development and tax incentives. Alex has vast experience negotiating both statutory and discretionary incentive packages nationwide for a variety of industry sectors. Alex is widely recognized by the major economic development agencies as one of the top incentives negotiators in the United States.

Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, Alex was the Director of Corporate Services at Pollina Corporate Real Estate and also served as the Sales Manager and Engineering Manager at Eisenmann where his responsibilities included lead generation, sales presentations, proposal development, estimating, customer management, contract negotiations and change order management.

Alex has won the LEED Accredited Professional designation and is a licensed real estate broker in the state of Illinois. Alex has been a participant in the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and is an active member of Access Living’s marathon fundraiser committee. Alex is also fluent in Spanish and German.

Alex received his Bachelors of Science in mechanical engineering from Bradley University and his Master of Business Administration from Northern Illinois University.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Jubal Smith of Jones Lang LaSalle

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Jubal SmithJubal Smith is Executive Vice President in the Business and Economic Incentives (BEI) Practice of Jones Lang LaSalle.  Jubal has sixteen years of experience in state and local economic development, incentives negotiation, site selection and identification and securing of state and local tax credits.

Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Jubal was a Senior Manager with Ernst & Young LLP Business Credits, Incentives & Site Location Practice and a Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP State and Local Tax Credits, Site Location, and Incentives Practice, both in Dallas, Texas.  Previous positions include: Director of Economic Development for the City of Austin, Texas and Project Manager for Entergy’s Office of Economic Development in Little Rock, AR.

Jubal is a Certified Economic Developer, a member of the International Economic Development Council and the Texas Economic Development Council.  Jubal is an instructor at the Mid-South Economic Development Course at The University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a focus on educating leaders in economic development. He is also a frequent speaker on topics related to economic development, credits and incentives at conferences, forums and various Governor planning and discussion panels.

Jubal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mississippi State University and a Master’s Degree in economic development from the University of Southern Mississippi.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Dan Breen of Jones Lang LaSalle

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Dan BreenDan Breen is Executive Vice President in the Business and Economic Incentives (BEI) Practice of Jones Lang LaSalle. Dan has sixteen years of experience in the identification and implementation of state and local tax credits and the development of financial and tax analysis. Dan specializes in helping clients identify, negotiate and implement tax and financial credits and incentives.  Dan has successfully secured a variety of significant incentives for projects throughout the U.S. and Caribbean, including major manufacturing facilities, distribution, disaster recovery and call centers, and headquarters, administrative and retail locations.  Dan has served clients in multiple industry sectors, including manufacturing, distribution, financial services, information technology, health care and pharmaceutical businesses.

Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, Dan served as director and Northeast C&I Practice Leader with Grant Thornton LLP; National Economic Development Services Leader for ADP; and New York Metro Practice Leader for the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP State and Local Tax Credits, Site Location, and Incentives Practice, all in New York City or New Jersey.

Dan is a member of the State Bar of New Jersey and a Certified Public Accountant in New York and New Jersey.  Dan has presented at numerous conferences and symposiums on taxation and economic development and has authored multiple published articles on issues relating to credits and incentives. Dan is a member of the Hanover Township Economic Development Advisory Committee, Hanover Township Board of Adjustment and the Board of Directors of Hanover Hockey.

Dan received a Masters of Law (LL.M) in taxation from New York University School of Law, a Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Scranton.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Brian Corde of Atlas Insight

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Brian CordeBrian Corde is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Atlas Insight, an independent member of the BDO Seidman Alliance Firm Network. Atlas assists businesses from all sectors in helping them choose strategic locations for their operations, helping create competitive advantage and achieve overall corporate goals by using location and incentives as ways to reduce operating costs and produce optimum results.

Brian brings 18 years of economic development experience to the Atlas team. Prior to founding Atlas, Brian was a Regional Practice Leader within BDO Seidman’s Business Location Incentives and Site Selection (BLISS) group and was the point person on the firm’s US and European site selection clients. Prior to joining BDO, Brian was a Partner with Mintax, where he developed their site location and discretionary incentive practice.

Brian also held the position of Executive Director over the Location Advisory and Economic Development Incentive group at ADP. Throughout his career, Brian has assisted numerous Fortune 500® companies such as Wells Fargo, Allstate, HSBC, Kraft, Philip Morris, Pfizer, Computer Sciences Corporation and Yahoo with their site selection and incentive needs. Brian has also assisted various government agencies with their business attraction and retention policies, and has helped write incentive legislation to keep them competitive within the global marketplace.

Brian has authored numerous articles for various trade publications including Expansion Management, Site Selection Magazine and The Business Xpansion Journal, and has been the featured speaker at conferences such as Industrial Asset Management Council, CoreNet Global, Tax Executive Institute and The World Research Group. Brian currently sits on the editorial advisory board of Business Xpansion Journal, an industry trade publication and is the former Chair of the Associate Membership Committee for IAMC.

Brian is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Economics with concentrations in Accounting and Finance.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Brandon Talbert of Austin Consulting

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Brandon TalbertAs a location consultant for Austin Consulting, Brandon Talbert has performed site location studies for a diverse clientele. Specific areas of expertise include food processing plants, industrial manufacturing, warehouses and distribution centers. Brandon’s work on location studies has included supply chain studies, labor market analysis, favorable area analysis, metropolitan area site searches, community assessment and site and building evaluation. Brandon is also experienced in site evaluation for “shovel ready” certification as Austin performs this service for state, regional and local economic development organizations across the country. Most recently, Brandon has played a key role in the development and launch of the Select Tennessee statewide industrial site certification program.

Prior to joining The Austin Company, Brandon served as business recruitment director for the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, a regional economic development marketing organization in Fort Wayne. Brandon began his economic development career in Tennessee, where he was responsible for the marketing and business development activities for the Tri-Cities Economic Development Alliance in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

Brandon is passionate about traveling, running and sports. Brandon is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) by the International Economic Development Council. He has been recognized by the Business Journal of Tri Cities, TN/VA, 40 Under Forty; Milligan College Most Outstanding Business Student and by the Wall Street Journal for the Award of Business Excellence.

Brandon received Bachelor of Science degrees in business administration and computer information systems from Milligan College in east Tennessee.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Josh Bays of Site Selection Group

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Josh BaysJosh Bays is a Principal of Site Selection Group where he manages the company’s industrial, education and economic development business practices. He is a critical part of the company’s management team and helps develop and implement strategic plans for SSG. Throughout his career, Josh has been a key contributor in the continued development of new service lines offered by the company. These contributions include the development of various cutting-edge analytical platforms that have enabled clients to optimize their location decisions.

Previously, Josh was an associate at Trammell Crow Company in the Corporate Site Selection Group. There, he supported all location advisory projects through the research of critical site selection variables, including economic incentive and real estate conditions for corporate operations.

Josh has completed more than 250 projects for global clients, including Amazon.com, W.W. Grainger, Novartis, Glanbia Foods, Bimbo Bakeries, Boeing, Harley-Davidson, Lincoln Education Services, Bryant & Stratton College and the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition.

Josh received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Josh holds a bachelor’s degree in geography with concentrations in urban geography and geographic information science from The University of Texas at Austin.

 

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An Inside Look: Feat. Ann Petersen of Jones Lang LaSalle

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Picture1Ann Petersen is a vice president and member of the Business and Economic Incentives division of Jones Lang LaSalle. Ann’s primary responsibilities include researching state and local economic development programs, coordination of state and local economic development programs, coordination and negotiation with state and local economic development officials and implementation of incentives. Ann provides complex financial analysis to her clients which includes 10 year P&L cash flow modeling of each project.  In addition, Ann utilizes her legal background to provide creative savings solutions to her clients through legal analysis, tax legislation and letter rulings.

Prior to joining the BEI Team, Ann was with the State and Local Tax practice at KPMG LLP where her practice was focused on state and local income and incentives advisory and compliance services. At KPMG, Ann worked with a broad range of multi-state clients that included leaders within the retail, manufacturing and financial services industries. Ann advised her clients on a variety of transactions including tax compliance, state tax return review, advisory, state audit defense, tax due diligence and business restructurings. In addition, Ann’s practice was a leader in state and local RAR exam reporting, state pass through taxation and state-level income and franchise taxes imposed on disregarded entities and partnerships, nonresident withholding and negotiation of specialized filing methodologies.

Ann has served as an executive board member and officer of the Tax Council for the MSBA Tax Section and as Editor in Chief of the MSBA Tax Section Newsletter. She is a member of the Minnesota Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women and served on the Board of the National CREW Foundation – the philanthropic arm of CREW Network. She has also served as an Economic Development Commissioner for a local Minnesota community and was awarded Economic Development Project of Year in Des Moines, IA.

Ann received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Hamline University and Juris Doctor Degree from Hamline School of Law.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Brett Bayduss of Site Selection Group

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Bayduss-colorAs executive vice president and founding partner of Site Selection Group, Brett Bayduss is a critical part of the management team and manages all aspects of the location advisory division.

Bayduss brings 15 years of location advisory experience to the company. He has completed more than 400 site selection projects for clients, including American Express, Becton Dickinson, Marriott, McKesson and Medtronic.

Prior to joining Site Selection Group, Bayduss was vice president of the Corporate Site Selection Group at Trammell Crow Company, where he conducted in-depth site selection research of locations across the world on behalf of corporate customers.

Bayduss was a team recipient of the 2003, 2004 and 2005 William Dorsey Site Selection Award, presented by Site Selection Magazine. He was recognized for his career accomplishments by the Dallas Business Journal for the “Heavy Hitter” award in 2005 and the “Top 35 Under 35” in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. He also was recognized as a “Power Broker” by the CoStar Group in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Bayduss is a noted expert in trade publications, including as Area Development and National Real Estate Investor.

He is a licensed real estate salesman in the State of Texas and holds a master’s degree in geography-site selection from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a bachelor’s degree in urban planning-geography from Binghamton University.

 

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An Inside Look: Feat. Les Cranmer of Savills Studley

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Les CranmerLes Cranmer is the Senior Managing Director of Savills Studley and has over 40 years of experience in consulting services associated with corporate real estate and facilities. Les’ professional expertise covers virtually all corporate facility types including: headquarters, back office operations, customer services, shared services support, research and development, data centers, manufacturing, distribution, and other special purpose real estate holdings.

Les has been responsible for developing real estate strategy and facility rationalization scenarios for over 200 separate organizations experiencing corporate restructuring. In addition, Les developed and analyzed occupancy cost reduction programs for large multi facility users – and has developed facility consolidation plans for merged organizations and developed real estate disposal strategies for manufacturing and administrative facilities.

Prior to his current role at Savills Studley, Les was a director at Deloitte & Touche, LLP and also a partner at PHH Fantus Consulting. He was awarded the Industrial Deal of the Year by the Tri-State Realtors Commercial Alliance for TJX / Marshalls Distribution Facility of 1.4 million square foot build-to-suit project.

Les holds memberships in many professional and industry trade associations. Les is frequently quoted in industry trade publications and newspapers including; the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Real Estate Forum, Expansion Magazine, Area Development, and Site Selection Magazine. Les holds membership in many professional and industry trade associations and sits on the Editorial Board of Area Development Magazine. In addition, Les has authored numerous articles for professional journals.

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An Inside Look: Feat. Frank Spano of Austin Consulting

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Frank SpanoFrank Spano is the managing director of Austin Consulting, where he has worked for almost 30 years. In that time, Frank has served as site location consultant, associate director, director and now managing director. In this role, Frank is developing new strategies to increase The Austin Company’s leadership in food and beverage, nutraceuticals and other manufacturing sectors.

Frank also serves as a senior project manager, directs site location studies with the Austin Consulting staff and continues to conduct detailed field investigation analyses for clients. Frank has worked on behalf of clients in conducting incentive negotiations with state and local governments and completing comprehensive property due diligence services for Greenfield sites and existing buildings. Frank has represented clients on projects throughout urban and rural areas throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Prior to joining The Austin Company, Frank worked for a commercial real estate appraiser for a private real estate consulting firm. Frank was also employed as a consultant for Thompson Associates, the nation’s leading retail site location firm.

Frank is a writer for many publications including Food Processing and Area Development and is a frequent presenter on the topic of “Understanding Your Labor Market – How to Prepare Your Community for the Consultants Visit.”

Frank received a Bachelor of Science in business administration and marketing and a Master of Arts in economic geography from Kent State University.

 

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