Department of Economic & Community Development
Bill Hagerty, Commissioner

ECD’s Project Management team, led by Assistant Commissioner Kingsley Brock, is responsible for the recruitment of new industry to Tennessee.

 

Kingsley Brock serves as assistant commissioner for business development after having served in economic development at ECD for the past 10 years. Brock is the state’s lead recruiter having worked on a number of significant projects including Amazon, Mars, Federated Department Stores, Oreck, Verizon Wireless, Hemlock Semiconductor and Jackson National Life Insurance. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University. Brock is responsible for ECD’s business development functions including the project management and FastTrack incentive teams.

 

Gina Brown joined ECD in 2008 and has successfully managed large scale investments including investments from HCA, Viacom and Lifepoint. Prior to joining the project management team, Gina was a jobs development specialist at ECD with responsibility for projects in the Middle Tennessee region. Brown is a graduate of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

 

John Butler is a project manager with primary responsibility for handling foreign direct investment projects. Butler was instrumental in bringing C&F Manufacturing and Quaprotek to the state. He was formerly vice president of international development for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and managed export policy for the state of Tennessee during the mid-90’s. He serves as the Honorary British Consul for Tennessee and is a graduate of the University of Westminster-London.

 

Brenda Pfeiffer leads the charge on automotive and advanced manufacturing projects, having successfully managed more than 200 economic development projects since 2007 with capital investments totaling more than $900 million. Recent wins include Mann+Hummel, Amazon and General Motors. She is a graduate of Oakland University in Rochester, MI and, in 2004, graduated from the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

 

Victoria Hirschberg manages projects and investments within the energy, technology, chemicals and plastics sectors. Prior to joining the project management team, Victoria served as a business development consultant in Northern Middle Tennessee where she helped facilitate company expansions and build stakeholder relationships. Victoria achieved a Masters of Community & Regional Planning and a Masters of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico. She completed her undergraduate at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.