Vernon George is President of Hammer, Siler, George Associates in Silver Springs, Maryland.

Mr. George has been with Hammer, Siler, George Associates since 1963 and presently manages the Washington office of the firm as well as directs a wide'range of public and private economic consulting assignments. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the University of North Carolina. He is a Trustee of the J. A. Parker Trust and the Hammer Fellowship at the University of North Carolina and a member of the Advisory Council at the University of Illinois.

Prior to joining Hammer, Siler, George Associates, Mr. George worked with large and small consulting firms and city, county, state and federal development agencies. Mr. George is a member of the Board of the Association of University Research Related Parks and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Council for Urban Economic Development. He is also a full member of the American Planning Association and headed their Economic Development Division. He has testified before Congress on a number of development issues including most recently the Enterprise Zone Program. Mr. George recently authored the real estate market feasibility standards for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

His clients include major developers and lenders such as the Rouse Company, Merrill Lynch, Hubbard, Verex, Citicorp Realty, Brooks Harvey, Morgan Stanley, and industrial firms such as International Paper, Combustion Engineering, Burroughs, and Black and Decker. Public clients include the cities of Washington, D.C., New York, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, San Diego, Kansas City, Syracuse, Buffalo, Champaign and many others. Non-profit clients include Princeton University, the Ford Foundation, and the University of Connecticut.

Ronald B. Brown is the Vice President for Government and Interagency Services and Director of Project Planning for The Austin Company.

The Austin Company consists of consultants, architects, engineers, constructors and construction managers. His work involves directing major aviation programs and projects planning and development within the state of Florida, and the eastern regions of the United States. He directs corporate liaison involving county, state, and federal governments, as well as foreign governments and private sector major programs in Canada, the Middle East, and Latin America.

A retired Colonel, Mr. Brown held numerous high level command and staff positions for the U.S. Department of Defense in Latin American and the Caribbean. He holds a B. S. degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and did graduate studies at Chapman University, the USA Command and General Staff College and the US Naval War College.

Janet Watermeier is the Director of Economic Development for Lee County.

Her office serves as staff to the Horizon Council, a 57- member economic development advisory board to the Lee County Commission, and the Industrial Development Authority. Ms. Watermeier graduated magna cum laude from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a degree in Economics, and did her graduate studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. Ms. Watermeier is active in economic development efforts at the local, regional and state level.

She serves on the Enterprise Florida Partners Council (Florida's public/private economic development partnership), the Florida Economic Development Long-Range Strategic Plan Task Force, the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, and was recently appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to serve on the Florida Transportation Commission.