Our Core Team
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Peter Fairweather Peter Fairweather has a practice specializing in strategic change processes for communities and organizations. His work draws upon more than twenty years of experience in strategic planning, economic development, education and community planning. President of Fairweather Consulting for over a decade, he regularly leads consulting teams on projects related to strategic planning, economic development and community revitalization. The technology-led economic development strategy he created for rural Ontario County, NY has been featured at conferences throughout the United States. He recently completed a strategic plan for Walkway Over the Hudson, the organization that created the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. He has successfully completed analyses for arts, wine and food-related projects in Texas, Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley regions in New York. Among his teaching & administrative duties at the State University of New York at New Paltz, he ran an institute on community planning & economic development, was the campus-wide coordinator for a facilities master plan and was part of a four-person team that led the State’s response to a major IBM downsizing. During that time, he also designed the college’s Institute for International Business (which created and delivered training programs for clients in Germany, Greece, and Sweden), produced public affairs television programming and helped create the Hudson Valley Forum, a symposium series that became the college’s single largest source of unrestricted private funding. Mr. Fairweather was also part of the team that initiated the SUNY Learning Network, a system-wide distance learning platform. Mr. Fairweather received his master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, where he was an Arthur Bromage Fellow. His bachelor’s degree in political science was earned summa cum laude at SUNY New Paltz. He is a member of the American Planning Association, the International Economic Development Council, the Society for College & University Planning, the New York Planning Federation, the Northeast Economic Development Association and the New York State Economic Development Council. |
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Sandra Davis Sandra Davis provides quantitative and qualitative research support for Fairweather Consulting. She earned her bachelor’s degree in economics summa cum laude from the State University of New York at New Paltz. During her time there, she led the college’s chapter of the International Economics Honor Society, Omicron Delta Epsilon. In her senior year, she spent a semester abroad at Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain, her birthplace. Her studies in Madrid blended economic theory with mathematical and statistical modeling. Upon returning to SUNY New Paltz, Sandra completed her senior thesis on the effects of water privatization on child health in Sub-Saharan Africa using econometric analysis to evaluate the impact of privatization in four national economies: Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia. Prior to her job at Fairweather Consulting, she interned at the Dutchess County Economic Development Corporation where she researched requests for proposals, government procurement and bids, and consolidated bid information on the DCEDC website. Ms. Davis is fluent in Spanish. |
Jim Armstrong Jim coordinates our Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E) program. Currently he operates our BR&E contract with Ontario County, NY. He makes regular visits to employers and start-ups throughout the County, working with them to assess the challenges and opportunities they face and connecting them with business support services ranging from financing to workforce development programs. He also maintains an in-depth CRM database on those contacts providing the County Office of Economic Development with in-depth information on the overall condition of businesses throughout the County. Jim has extensive experience with economic development in the Finger Lakes area. He is a graduate of Clarkson University, where he was an outstanding hockey player. He operates the Strong Hockey camps, one of the leading hockey instruction camps in the Rochester, NY region.
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