The mayor’s office, the Office of Economic Development, JAX Chamber, Jacksonville Transportation Authority and other stakeholders are key partners in our economic development marketing efforts. Our role was to create a compelling differentiated case for why Jacksonville should be considered for Amazon’s HQ2. The story flowed pretty easily because it was the truth. We saw that our values are very similar to Amazon’s, and that is the notion of customer-centricity.
Our site concept keeps Amazon at the core. Our campus in the urban core is inherently customer-centric because we’re putting Amazon in the center of our city. We’re saying, come here and let’s grow together, come help shape what we’re going to be. Our goal is to make the short list. I certainly feel like we’re No. 1, but we’ll let Amazon decide that.
TruJAX was a process established over three years ago by the Office of Economic Development, JAX Chamber and Visit Jacksonville. The world doesn’t know what we’ve got and it began to hamper how we approached marketing of the city and economic development.
We knew the solution was not another slogan. We went in search of our city’s DNA and then to set a vision. Our DNA statement is inspired by our waterways. That was the North Star the whole way, so that led us to the vision that Jacksonville will be the water life center of America.
The water life concept has four key pillars – recreation and adventure; health and wellness; economic growth; and ecological health. There were two key principles to the program. One was we had to be authentic and two, we knew we had to be aspirational.
I’m a Jacksonville native and spent 10 years away after high school. I came back here in 1994 and joined a local firm. Karen Burdette and I got together in 1999 and it was a great opportunity to take my training and move into a leadership role. We’ve been lucky to enjoy good success with a lot of great local brands like Daily’s, Advanced Disposal Services and Web.com, and folks like that over the years.
I love golf and family time. My wife, Missy, and I have been married 22 years. She’s a rock and a great mom. My daughter, Kaiden, is a sophomore at Indiana University. My son, Ben, is a junior at Episcopal School of Jacksonville. My daughter’s path is pretty set in the international arena. My son has a creative mind, so he may follow in my footsteps in some way.
