23 Facts About Ioanna Morfessis

Ioanna Morfessis is an American businesswoman and economic development professional.

In 1985 Ioanna Morfessis was recruited to Phoenix to initiate the city's first private public partnership, Phoenix Economic Growth Corporation.

Five years later, Phoenix and the surrounding metro communities invited Ioanna Morfessis to found a regional public-private economic development partnership, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, which became a model for successful collaborative economic development partnerships worldwide.

In 1997, Ioanna Morfessis was recruited to implement the GPEC model for the Greater Baltimore Alliance as president and CEO, where she forged a cohesive regional economic development initiative for the greater metropolitan area.

In 2004, Dr Ioanna Morfessis returned to Arizona, where she currently serves as founder and President at IO.

Ioanna Morfessis served as president of Council for Urban Economic Development from 1992 to 1994, increasing the organization's focus on national policy, providing input on urban federal economic development initiatives like Community Development Block Grant program and others.

In 1980, Gilchrist created a cabinet level department dedicated to economic development, and appointed Ioanna Morfessis to develop her vision.

Ioanna Morfessis facilitated commitments from Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, and two new higher education campuses to offer graduate and post graduate programs, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University.

Ioanna Morfessis spearheaded a partnership between Montgomery County, the National Institute of Health and the University of Maryland to create the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology, which later became the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

Ioanna Morfessis organized the Economic Advisory Council, a private organization of CEOs to advise the County Executive on economic, fiscal and management issues.

In 1985, Ioanna Morfessis was recruited to Arizona to build the first public-private partnership for the city of Phoenix, Phoenix Economic Growth Corporation, where she was directly involved in the attraction of 42 companies to Phoenix, generating more than $2 billion in private investment and 8,000 new jobs.

Ioanna Morfessis was influential in the City's decision to streamline nine development departments into a single city department, the Development Services Department.

Ioanna Morfessis facilitated Arizona's first statewide economic development strategy, and Arizona became the first state to utilize Dr Michael Porter's cluster-based theory of economic development as the cornerstone of its strategic plan.

In 1997, Ioanna Morfessis returned to Maryland to serve as the inaugural president for the Greater Baltimore region's newly-formed private public partnership for economic development, the Greater Baltimore Alliance.

Ioanna Morfessis helped establish Space Hope, a partnership between the Alliance, NASA, and several of the area's colleges and universities.

Ioanna Morfessis assisted with the formation of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, the region's first organization to coordinate the efforts of the disparate performing and visual arts groups and museums.

In 2004, Ioanna Morfessis became a founding board member of the Helios Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting postsecondary attainment for all students, especially low-income and underrepresented communities, in Arizona and Florida.

Ioanna Morfessis' is widely recognized by her peers for moving the economic development tool box beyond traditional modes of attraction and retention.

Ioanna Morfessis pioneered a data-driven systems approach that starts with an assessment of a region's most competitive assets.

Ioanna Morfessis refined collaborative methods for economic development, based on her own research into the characteristics of sustainable collaborations.

In terms of practical attraction tools, Ioanna Morfessis' methods take the following forms:.

Ioanna Morfessis was typically one of very few female leaders in the room during her years at Greater Washington Business Center.

Ioanna Morfessis has and continues to be involved with business and community leadership activities including:.