Mark Waterhouse, CEcD

                                             President, Garnet Consulting Services

Mark D. Waterhouse, CEcD has been active in the field of economic development since 1972. He is President and one of the founders of Garnet Consulting Services, Inc., a firm that specializes in market and feasibility studies, business park master planning, community and organizational evaluation, strategic planning, site searches, and other economic development services for communities, companies and property owners or buyers.

Prior to founding Garnet, Mark served for 4½ years as Development Coordinator, Manager of Area Sales and Special Projects Coordinator with The FIP Corporation, Connecticut’s largest, full service, design/build business park developer. Before joining FIP, he had eight year’s of municipal economic development experience, including six as Director of Economic and Community Development for the City of Milford and Town of Stratford in Connecticut. He has also provided consulting services to businesses and individuals in the areas of business and strategic planning and governmental financing programs.

 

Mark is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was awarded the Dartmouth Alumni Award in recognition of service to the college, distinction in his career, and community service. He is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute and the Minority Business and Economic Development Internship Program. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and has been a Certified Economic Developer® since 1977. He is a qualified Myers-Briggs (MBTI®) practitioner, specializing in team-building and group facilitation. He is a Past Chair (1994-95) of the American Economic Development Council (now the International Economic Development Council) and its Board of Regents, and was a Trustee of the AEDC Educational Foundation and member of the Editorial Board of the Economic Development Review, which he served as Final Copy Editor from 1985-95 and Editor from 1996-97. He was awarded IEDC’s Edward deLuca Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He is a Past President of the Connecticut Economic Development Association (CEDAS), which presented him with its 2004 President’s Award for lifetime achievement. He served as Executive Director of the Northeastern Economic Developers Association (NEDA) from 1986 to 1995; he was awarded NEDA’s 2002 Member of the Year Award and the Connecticut NEDA chapter’s 2009 Developer of the Year award. He is a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute, which he served as Dean from 1989 to 1993, and as a management consultant from 2000 – 2004; he recently retired from the program’s Executive Board after nearly 20 years of service. He was an adjunct faculty member of Western Connecticut State University and is one of the founders of WCSU’s economic development undergraduate major.

 

Mark is a frequent lecturer or speaker at many economic development programs nationally, and is the author of many articles about economic development. His article “Building Viable Communities--The Essence of Economic Development” won the 1992 Howard G. Roepke Award for the best article in the Economic Development Review, and he was presented the 1996 Richard Preston Award for Educational Merit for his long-term contributions to economic development education. He is the author of the chapter “Professionalizing the Economic Developer” in the Spring 1997 publication The University’s Role in Economic Development: From Research to Outreach (Jossey-Bass Publishers), and co-author of “Unleashing Fundamental Change: Networking Transformational Thinking and Action Through Economic Development” published in the Winter 2012 issue of IEDC’s Economic Development Journal.

 

A Captain in the United States Marine Corps, Mark was Company Commander of a Combat Engineer Company in Vietnam.