Michael E. Porter
Chairman and Founder

Michael E. Porter is the chairman of ICIC and the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, based at Harvard Business School. A University professorship is the highest professional recognition that can be given to a Harvard faculty member. Michael is a leading authority on competitive strategy and the competitiveness and economic development of nations, states, and regions. His ideas on strategy have now become the foundation for the required strategy course at the Harvard Business School, and are taught in virtually every business school in the world. Michael also speaks widely on competitive strategy and international competitiveness to business and government audiences throughout the world. In 2001, Harvard Business School and Harvard University jointly created the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, led by Michael, to further his work. He is the author of 16 books and over 100 articles. Michael's research on economic development gave rise to his third major body of work: the relationship between competition and society. He has conducted extensive research on economic development in America's distressed inner city areas, beginning with the Harvard Business Review article 'The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City'. In 1994, he founded The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a non-profit, private-sector organization to catalyze inner-city business development across the country.

David G. Latimore
Chief Executive Officer & President

David G. Latimore, brings a wealth of business and community experience to the position. With more than fifteen years of success in business and community development, he has a background well suited to advance ICIC’s mission of transforming inner city communities through private sector engagement and business-led economic development. A native of St Louis, David graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Economics in 1990. He began his career as an Associate Consultant for Bain & Company. David then served as Chief Operating Officer of Emerging Manager Trust Group, a startup company based in New Orleans  helping minority-owned asset management firms grow and prosper. David then held a series of increasingly senior positions in the pension management field, serving as Vice President and Group Manager of Sales and Marketing for the Mercantile Bancorporation, Marketing Executive for The Vanguard Group, Director of Research and Sales at Hartford Life, and Managing Vice President of the ICMA Retirement Corporation. In 1996, the St. Louis Business Journal named him as one of the “Top 40 Business Leaders Under 40”.Throughout his business career, David was dedicated to economic development and community activities. He served as Executive Assistant to the Mayor, and later Consultant for the St. Louis Development Corporation. He was Senior Pastor for a 200-member congregation at the Southern Union Baptist Church, and a volunteer in the St. Louis public school  system. Recently, David earned his Master’s in Divinity from the Duke University Divinity School. As part of his training, he served as the interim Senior Pastor for a 500-member congregation at the Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida. In this role, he was responsible for a 100 unit low-income housing development, a life skills training program, and strategic partnerships with Santa Fe Community College and the City of Gainesville.

Deirdre M. Coyle, Jr.
Senior Vice President and Director, Communications

Deirdre joined the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) in May 1998. As Senior Vice President, Director of Communications she is responsible for developing and implementing the national, regional and local communications strategy for ICIC. Deirdre has recruited and retained a topnotch communications team that has secured over 6,000 news articles on behalf of ICIC, its research and programs. In addition, she has successfully executed a brand building program that has helped to position ICIC has one of the premier organizations for thought leadership on inner city economic development in America. Prior to joining ICIC, Deirdre was a Director at BSMG Worldwide in the Boston office. From 1992 to 1996, Deirdre was the Director of Communications for the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission and was Special Assistant and then press secretary to the Treasurer of Massachusetts Joseph Malone. She also worked with The White House during the Bush/Quayle years on special event coordination and press relations. Deirdre started her career in the private sector at a Chicago communications company, Extroversion, Inc., where she designed marketing and public relations campaigns for Fortune 100 companies.

Teresa Lynch
Senior Vice President and Director, Research

Teresa joined the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City in the fall of 2006. As Senior Vice President, Director of Research she is responsible for designing and overseeing a research agenda to promote inner-city investment and economic development. Before joining ICIC, Teresa was a Senior Economist at EDR Group, a Boston consulting firm. Prior to that, she was a graduate student in Urban Studies and Political Science at MIT, where she worked as research assistant on the Industrial Performance Center’s globalization study and the International Motor Vehicle Program’s study on globalization and jobs in the automotive industry. She has published or presented work on globalization and corporate strategy, foreign direct investment in the automotive industry, infrastructure investments and economic development, and the use of economic models and methods in environmental policy making. She holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Public Policy from UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in Regional Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Manjari Raman
Senior Vice President and Director, Inner City Economic Forum

Manjari joined the Initiative of a Competitive Inner City in October 2004. Manjari leads and manages initiatives under the Inner City Economic Forum’s action areas: increasing capital flows to inner cities; building inner city companies of size and scale; and marketing the economic opportunity of inner cities. In addition, she shapes and disseminates research related to inner city businesses and inner city economies. Manjari has more than 15 years of corporate experience, working as a business editor. She has been published in the Wall Street Journal in the U.S. and The Economic Times and Financial Express in India. In 2000, she was responsible for launching and leading "eFE’"—the world’s first daily newspaper on the New Economy. In 2004, she wrote a seminal monthly column called ``Good to Global’’ for Business Standard, India’s leading business paper, in which she chronicled the emerging globalization challenges of Indian companies. Manjari has a Masters in Economics and studied management at Harvard University.

Matt Camp
Vice President, Development

As Vice President of Research at ICIC, Matt is responsible for designing and overseeing national research projects on inner-city business strategy and economic development while maintaining relationships with ICIC’s various constituents on research and business development matters.  Prior to joining ICIC, Matt worked as an independent consultant to for-profit and nonprofit organizations focused on educational and economic development issues.  Matt also has over ten years experience in the financial services industry as a Senior Financial Analyst at Liberty Mutual and OneBeacon and as a General Manager at American International Group.  Matt holds an A.B. in Government at Harvard College and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Sarah Reinstein
Vice President, Inner City 100

Sarah manages the Inner City 100 program, which identifies and honors the 100 fastest growing inner city-based companies in the country. Now in it 8th year, the Inner City 100 program was created by ICIC in partnership with Inc. magazine. The goal of the program is to change perceptions about inner cities as business locations by featuring high-growth companies that operate there. Prior to joining ICIC, Reinstein was a Senior Corporate Partnerships Manager and Fireman Public Service Fellow at City Year. Her experience managing relationships with national corporate sponsors will lend itself to her new work with the Inner City 100 Program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.

Rachel Hitch
Manager, Inner City Economic Forum

As Manager of the Inner City Economic Forum, Rachel is responsible for the Forum’s ongoing activities, particularly the Membership Program and the annual Summit event. In this role, she continuously seeks to engage, connect and inform the nation’s most active leaders in inner city economic development. Prior to joining ICIC, Rachel held leadership roles for the City of New York, including managing communications for a major bureaucratic transformation within the Department of Education and providing economic and financial expertise for high-profile redevelopment projects at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the primary real estate and business development vehicle for the Mayor of New York City. Rachel holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University.

Arthur Romania
Controller

Arthur joined ICIC in January 2007. As Controller, Arthur is responsible for the day-to-day fiscal    needs  of  the organization, insuring accurate record keeping, financial reporting and revenue maximization.  Most recently, Arthur was with Massachusetts Mental Health Institute (MMHI) a psychiatric research nonprofit organization; controller in title, Arthur was also the de-facto CFO. Prior to MMHI, Arthur acquired extensive experience as Finance Director/Controller for Brigham and Women’s Hospital OB/GYN Associates.