Investing in Resilience at the Economic Development Symposium
As co-leaders of the Economic Development Club, my classmate Jason Liu ’25 and I spent much of this past spring organizing the club’s annual symposium, which convenes educators, practitioners, and students to discuss development from different perspectives. This year, we chose the theme “Investing in Resilience.”
The club’s mission is to educate and build a community of leaders creating social impact through economic development. For me, economic development has always meant rebuilding my home—the Rust Belt region along the U.S. Great Lakes—through investment into entrepreneurship, innovation, and education.
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, I wrestled with the impacts of globalization, disinvestment, redlining, and more. My professional work, especially my service as an Appalachian Leadership Fellow in 2022, deepened my understanding of the communities that have faced historic underinvestment and persistent economic disadvantages, and their successes and strategies against these odds.
These experiences taught me that economic development strategies have to be more sophisticated and sustainable than smokestack chasing—convincing large corporations to do business in a state or region—and site development. I wanted to learn how to invest in the dynamism of both a people and a place; connect workforce strategies with access-to-capital initiatives; and develop new, resilient, economic clusters. Yale SOM was the only MBA program that could provide this comprehensive education.
The theme “investing in resilience” was closely tied to this thread in my career.
Creating an event that speaks equally to faculty, practitioners, and students across Yale was a difficult but rewarding process. This was the second year since the COVID pandemic that we’ve organized the symposium, and we knew how important it was to rebuild the club infrastructure while leveraging the success of last year’s event. This annual gathering is unique among top business schools and an important part of SOM’s mission to educate leaders for business and society.
We established three critical initiatives for this year’s symposium. First, we needed to bridge both the international and domestic development interests of the SOM student body. Second, we wanted to further broaden the reach of the symposium outside of the university. And third, we needed a deeply relevant keynote speaker to tie it all together.
We chose the theme “Investing in Resilience” for this year’s symposium after conversations with faculty stakeholders, first-year symposium leads, and potential speakers. This theme gave us flexibility but also clarity on what the focus of the event would be. It also reflected both Jason’s passion for international development and my pre-SOM work in tech-based economic development.
Early on, we also decided to partner with the community development office of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to co-host this year’s symposium alongside their event “What’s Possible,” which focuses on investments in climate resilience. This spectacular event really helped us to understand the current economic and community development landscape and connect with development professionals across Connecticut.
But our symposium really came into focus when Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, the executive secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and a Yale alum, agreed to serve as our keynote speaker. His focus on the development priorities and impact of the UNCDF helped to drive home the point that investing in resilience is often investing in capacity. The UNCDF plays a critical role in expanding development capacity, whether through direct loans, guarantees, or technical assistance.
Meanwhile, Ryno Byleveldt, an investment portfolio manager, also agreed to lead a workshop on blended finance programs. We introduced this unique session this year and we were thrilled to provide more technical depth to our audience. We plan to lean into programming like this next year and look at further sessions that engage students and practitioners alike on specific topics.
Our theme also allowed for two dynamic panel discussions. The first, focusing on opportunities and challenges of finance in emerging markets, featured Alexandra Sing from Capitalize Good, Gerald Tanyi from the International Finance Corporation, and Jackie Hyland from the Banc of California. Each panelist provided unique insights into capital deployment, and the audience asked questions on topics ranging from startup ecosystems to new geographic opportunities. These panelists were also offered perspectives across a spectrum of capital, from philanthropic to blended finance and capital seeking market-level returns. For the first time this year, we piloted the use of an audience engagement app that allowed audience members to upvote questions in real time, ensuring that the best questions were poised to panelists.
The second panel, called “Leveraging Federal Funding for Regional Economic Development,” showcased regional resilience strategies and featured Aishwarya Kuruttukulam from ClimateHaven, Ben Linville-Engler from MassTech, Jodie Nazaka from Manchester Economic Development, from Laura Francis with the South Central Council of Governments. This panel, representing diverse approaches to regional development, fostered a conversation that bridged effective strategies and the undercurrents of investing in regional economic resilience today. This panel benefitted from deep audience interest in understanding strategic and tactical responses to federal changes in grant funding.
This symposium was made possible by the generous support of the Charlotte Foundation and the Sidney Gross Memorial Community Economic Development Fund. I want to thank all of the student organizers, volunteers, speakers, and funders that made this event a success and a capstone experience for both me and Jason. We can’t wait to support the club in the future as alumni practitioners.