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Sterling featured speaker for Engineer's Week

By Lynn Nystrom

Spectrum Volume 19 Issue 20 - February 13, 1997

Wayne L. Sterling, executive director of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), will be Virginia Tech's College of Engineering's featured speaker during its celebration of National Engineers' Week. Sterling will speak at a breakfast on Wednesday, Feb. 19, to be attended by business and civic leaders of the New River and Roanoke Valleys, as well as area politicians and campus representatives.

Sterling joined the state as its director of the Department of Economic Development in June of 1994. On July 1, 1996, he was selected as the first executive director of the new VEDP. The partnership has broad economic-development responsibilities including: national and international investment; trade; tourism; film promotion; and existing business expansion. The partnership maintains international offices in Frankfurt and Tokyo.

Before moving to Virginia, Sterling was the executive director of the South Carolina's Department of Commerce from October 1988 until June 1994. His career path also included serving as group vice-president for economic development at the Fort Worth, Texas Chamber of Commerce; vice-president of marketing for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry; executive director of the Washington Industrial Development Foundation in Washington Parish, Louisiana; and executive director of the Industrial Development Board of Central Louisiana.

Before becoming a full-time economic-development professional, Sterling served as an assistant professor of economics and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Southeastern Louisiana University.

He received a master's degree in economics and a juris doctor of laws degree from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

He serves as chair of the American Economic Development Council (AEDC), is a member of the Southern Economic Development Council, the Mississippi Bar Association, and the American Chamber of Commerce Executives Association, and is an associate member of the International Development Research Council.

The breakfast will be held at the Donaldson Brown Hotel and Conference Center.