OCTOBER INTERVIEW LARA FRITTS, president and CEO, Greater Richmond Partnership
Building on success
New leader focuses on growing Richmond region’s already-strong economy
by Kate Andrews I
Formerly the director of Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development, Lara Fritts is the third president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership in the organization’s 25-year history.
n August, Lara Fritts became the new president and CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership, the public-private nonprofit orga- nization that provides economic development marketing to the city
Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico. A Green Bay, Wisconsin, native and Packers fan, the 48-year-old
Fritts is the third person — and first woman — to lead the organization in its 25-year history. She comes to Richmond with more than two decades of experience in economic development. In her most recent job, she was the first director of Salt Lake City’s
Department of Economic Development, where she recruited Amazon, UPS and other companies — without offering tax incentives. These businesses created nearly 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and made almost $1 billion in capital investments in three years. Previously Fritts managed several organizations in the Washington,
D.C., region, including the Southeast Fairfax Development Corp. and the D.C. Tech Council, and was director of business development for Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, an accounting and consulting firm in Tysons. Fritts lives in Chester with her husband, retired CIA agent Mike
Fritts. She is a certified economic developer through the International Economic Development Council. Fritts also holds a master’s degree in urban studies from the University of Wisconsin. “We feel so very fortunate to have Lara Fritts join us,” says Ches-
terfield County Board of Supervisors Chair Leslie A.T. Haley, who also chairs the Greater Richmond Partnership’s board of directors. “She brings an extensive background of leading organizations in attracting and developing economic development opportunities, most recently in Salt Lake City and previously in the eastern U.S. Lara has already engaged all of our local economic development directors and investor community with new strategic ideas and thoughts on how we can col- laboratively work to attract folks to the Central Virginia area.” Virginia Business spoke with Fritts a couple of weeks after she
started at GRPVA, discussing her initial impressions of Richmond, less- ons from Salt Lake City and the role the partnership can play in enhanc- ing the Richmond region’s strong and diversified regional economy.
28 | OCTOBER 2019 Photo by Caroline Martin
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