Dean Sheppard brings more than 18 years’ experience to the Arizona Commerce Authority.  He has spent a large portion of his career focused on economic and business development in the public and private sectors.  His experience includes business development for construction projects in the arena of corporate relocations to Arizona for various developers, as well as business retention and business expansion for the Town of Gilbert, City of Scottsdale and City of Glendale.  Mr. Sheppard previously worked as Vice President of Business Expansion and currently is Vice President Business Attraction for Arizona Commerce Authority.

Mr. Sheppard has provided a wide array of knowledge, which he utilizes as the Vice President in the ACA’s business attraction efforts. Mr. Sheppard’s accomplishments include executing business education programs offering key topic insights to the small and micro business owners; designed and implemented business engagement program targeting small business; community redevelopment, business attraction, business retention/expansion.

Economic development expertise includes State and local tax incentive negations and execution, real estate evaluation for multiple industry sectors, labor analytics, cost index analysis, and workforce strategies. He is a results-driven executive facilitating strong cross-functional relationships across multiple industries.

Mr. Sheppard holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from University of Phoenix and has completed course work for the CEcD Certification through IEDC’s training program.