Charlotte Business Professionals

As President and CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, Ronnie Bryant promotes the 16-county Charlotte USA region as a premier location for expanding and relocating businesses. With more than 30 years of technical, managerial and economic development expertise, Bryant is nationally known for establishing and implementing successful economic development programs, with a strong emphasis on existing industry expansion and retention, regionalism and marketing. The editors of Site Selection magazine have recognized Bryant for excellence in the field of economic development by twice naming organizations he led in Pittsburgh and St. Louis to its list of Top 10 economic development groups in the nation, and in 2007, the Charlotte Regional Partnership received an Honorary Mention. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ranked him No. 25 on its list of top 50 business leaders, and Charlotte - The City Magazine named Bryant No. 30 in its list of Charlotte's Fifty Most Powerful.

Prior to joining CRP, Bryant was president and chief operating officer of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance where he marketed the region and collaborated with regional economic development agencies to develop and implement job creation strategies. Before working in Pittsburgh, Bryant was the senior vice president of the Economic Development Division for the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association where he has been credited with the development of job creation strategies that resulted in more than 117,000 jobs within a five-year period. These professional skills grew from leading the development team at the Shreveport, La., Chamber of Commerce, working as a development consultant, and holding managerial and technical positions at AT&T's Western Electric facility.

Bryant, a certified economic developer (CEcD) since 1991, is a graduate of Louisiana State University in Shreveport and the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma (OU/EDI) in Norman. While attending OU/EDI, he received the American Economic Development Council's Robert B. Cassell Leadership Award for excellence in leadership and scholarship. He currently serves as the Dean of OU/EDI, a member of the Executive Board and a member of the OU/EDI faculty. Bryant has lectured internationally and nationally on issues related to economic development marketing, professional development and organizational management, and is currently an adjunct professor at UNC Charlotte Belk School.

Bryant is well known in economic development circles. He is a past chairman of the board for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), which has designated him as a Fellow Member (FM) and an Honorary Life Member (HLM) for furthering the profession of economic development as a teacher and inspiration to others in many communities. Currently, he serves as a government appointment to the North Carolina Economic Development Board and is a board member of CoreNet Global's Carolinas Chapter. Among his other professional affiliations are the International Asset Management Council (IAMC), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and both the North Carolina and South Carolina Economic Development Associations. Bryant's civic participation includes board memberships with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Charlotte Community Advisory Committee, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, Charlotte Research Institute, The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's (Charlotte Branch) Small Business and Agricultural Advisory Council, the Charlotte City Club and The North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. 

He and his wife, Sandra, have three children - Rarland, Remeka and Ronda.