All of us care about Connecticut’s economy.  Peter Denious and David Lehman have been appointed by Governor Lamont to two important commissions to help Connecticut grow:

  • Mr. Denious leads the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC).  “CERC drives economic development in Connecticut by providing research‐based data, planning and implementation strategies to foster business formation, recruitment and growth.”  See CERC.com
  • Mr. Lehman is Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD).  It is the state’s lead agency responsible for strengthening Connecticut’s competitive position in the rapidly changing, knowledge-based global economy.  See https://portal.ct.gov/DECD/Content/About_DECD/About-DECD-Office/About-DECD

Their talk will include:

  • The resources they have to work with.
  • Their approach
  • Issues that are helping, and hurting, the effort? Laws, regulation, transportation, workforce, sites, schools, housing, …
  • Incentives
  • What is the feedback from businesses here in CT?  From prospective out of state businesses?
  • What is working, what isn’t?
  • Flow of businesses relocation in and out of the state?
  • Competitiveness to other states?

They will close with the big ask:  What can we do as residents, voters, civic leaders, and businessmen to help Connecticut thrive.

 

Peter Denious leads the CERC team as its President and CEO.  He came to CERC in August 2019 as an accomplished private equity and venture capital professional who helped realize commercial and economic opportunity by connecting ideas, people and capital.

For the previous 17 years, Peter worked for FLAG Capital Management and its successor, Aberdeen Standard Investments, based in Stamford, CT.  Peter was a member of the senior leadership team responsible for growing the FLAG private equity platform to over $6.5B in AUM from approximately $1B when he joined in 2001.  During his tenure, Peter oversaw the venture capital fund investment program and became deeply involved with FLAG’s push into international markets, particularly Europe and Asia.  He was a member of both the Investment and Management Committees and was ultimately responsible for a $2B investment portfolio. Before FLAG, he worked for J.H. Whitney & Co. a direct private investment firm based in Stamford, CT.  He started his private equity career following business school at BancBoston Capital based in Boston, MA. Prior to graduate school, Peter worked for Prudential Securities and Chemical Bank in investment and commercial banking.

Peter is a graduate of Trinity College and received his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he is a board member of the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital.  He is also a member of Social Venture Partners Connecticut, a not for profit focused on closing the opportunity gap in Connecticut by supporting innovative organizations and initiatives in education and workforce development.

David Lehman, Commissioner & Governor’s Senior Economic Advisor

David Lehman is Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), the state agency that oversees a wide range of programs promoting business retention and recruitment, brownfield redevelopment, the arts, historic preservation and tourism. Governor Ned Lamont nominated him for the position earlier this year.

Mr. Lehman will also serve as the Governor’s Senior Economic Advisor. He is already hard at work at creating an innovative public-private partnership between DECD and CERC known as the Partnership to Advance the Connecticut of Tomorrow (PACT), a new economic development delivery model for our state.

Mr. Lehman’s business development priorities include helping build our urban centers into engines of growth; further capitalizing on the state’s top-flight colleges and universities; strengthening the state’s workforce pipelines; and marketing Connecticut as a place that is open for business.

Prior to joining DECD, Mr. Lehman worked in the financial services industry. Most recently he was Global Head of Real Estate Finance for the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 15 years.

 

Video: https://youtu.be/VdYhHdPW1hs