Economic Development 2023: NANCY L. GRDEN 

In April, Grden oversaw the merger of Reinvent Hampton Roads, which she had led since 2022, with the Hampton Roads Business Roundtable to form the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable. Grden will lead the new organization, which is focused on realigning the region’s economic development initiatives to boost growth. For the past seven years, Reinvent Hampton Roads supported GO Virginia Region 5 by awarding grants and garnering millions in investments for economic development initiatives.

A graduate of Bucknell University and the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking with a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from the University of South Carolina, Grden previously was chief of the Hampton Roads Maritime Collaborative for Growth and Innovation. She currently serves on the Norfolk Forum and Envision Lead Grow board — an entrepreneurship program for girls and young women — and chairs the 757 Collab board and works with the StartWheel/Innovate Hampton Roads education program. Grden also is general manager and consultant for Genomind, a firm that links personalized medicine to neuropsychiatry.

PERSONAL MOTTO: It will all work out.

SOMEWHERE I’D LIKE TO VISIT: New Zealand

IF I HAD A TIME MACHINE, I’D MEET: Henry Ford, innovator and iconoclast