Year at a Glance: Championing Our Region To Be The Best Place To Live, Work & Build A Business from Baltimore to Richmond

As we bid farewell to another transformative year, it is with great pride and enthusiasm that we reflect on the remarkable journey of the Greater Washington Partnership and its invaluable stakeholder community. Throughout the past twelve months, our collective efforts have not only weathered unprecedented challenges but have also paved the way for significant achievements. From fostering innovation and economic resilience to cultivating impactful collaborations, our shared commitment to regional progress has left an indelible mark.  

As we embrace the opportunities of a new year, let us take a moment to celebrate the moments and efforts that have shaped our community and propelled us toward a future defined by continued excellence and prosperity. 

With our partners and stakeholders, we have created invaluable insights, tools and best practices that help the region consider shared challenges and opportunities, and drive recommendations and solutions for long-term investments. We shaped dozens of regional dialogues around key issues by hosting more than 40 convenings, bringing together governors, mayors and White House officials alongside our region’s leading employers, key stakeholders and community leaders—all committed to championing inclusive economic growth and making this region the best place to live, work and build a business, from Baltimore to Richmond. We launched pilot programs and innovative projects that engendered cross-sector cooperation, and sourced original data that informs strategic decision making across all our bodies of work.  

Together, we drove substantial wins in each of our jurisdictions and strengthened the competitiveness of the region, while also creating economic opportunity for our region’s residents as we:  

Developed tools and products informed by Board partners and key stakeholders: 

• The Employer Insights Brief and Employer Signaling System Playbook, which together draw on labor market data and listening sessions with industry leaders to shed light on the in-demand jobs and skills impacting employer efforts to recruit and retain tech talent in the region. 
• An updated Inclusive Economic Growth Dashboard, a resource for stakeholders to understand the region’s socioeconomic landscape and inform policies, programs, and investments that drive a competitive economy and equitable outcomes for all the region’s residents regardless of race, gender, or zip code. 
• MetroNow and Baltimore’s Transit Future monthly newsletter digests for coalition stakeholders navigating evolving policy and infrastructure development landscapes. 
• The Entrepreneurship Insights Brief by our partner Deloitte and informed by the Partnership, a call to action for investors, government institutions, academia, and corporations to harness our collective expertise, resources, and networks to transform our region’s entrepreneurial network. 

Expanded our Communities of Practice to engage more of our region’s experts on priority issues:  

• Expanded our supplier diversity community of practice to include over 100 procurement and supplier diversity professionals spanning three jurisdictions and a myriad of sectors, offering valuable connections, a forum for information sharing, and direct engagement with diverse business owners. 
• Co-leads Baltimore’s Transit Future Coalition with Greater Baltimore Committee more than 70 business and non-profit organizations to guide the development of a world-class public transit system in Baltimore that catalyzes inclusive economic growth. 
• Co-organizes MetroNow Coalition with Federal City Council, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and regional leaders from the business, non-profit, and advocacy communities to ensure that action is taken to put Metro—the backbone of Greater Washington’s transportation infrastructure—on a safe, smart and sustainable path forward. 
• Assembled more than 50 of our region’s leading employers, educators at nearly 30 regional higher education institutions, and other workforce development leaders as education partners, all committed to strengthening our region’s talent pipeline and enhancing its workforce ecosystem. 

Prioritized our region’s infrastructure: 

• Helped secure nearly $1 billion in federal support for major infrastructure projects across the region that will continue to drive access and interconnectivity between our three cities.   
• Executed against Senior White House Advisor Mitch Landrieu’s call to action by developing a pilot program that will create an infrastructure signaling index using input from leading employers to help strategically prioritize and secure federal infrastructure grants across the region.  
• Elevated the significance of three critical “Tech Hub” applications; helping win two investments in Baltimore and Richmond and positioning our region to be a leader in advanced pharmaceutical and healthcare technologies. 

Rallied support for our transportation networks and downtown corridors: 

• Rallied the business community to support transformative investment in Baltimore’s transit through the Baltimore’s Transit Future Campaign, which helped advance three key objectives – the revival of the Baltimore Red Line project, the Maryland Commission on Transportation Revenue and Infrastructure Needs and the Baltimore Regional Transit Commission.  
• Led regional conversations on downtown revitalization, provided analytical insights and convened Mayors Muriel Bowser (DC), Levar Stoney (Richmond), and Brandon Scott (Baltimore), alongside cross-sector executives to share unique insights on downtown utilization and promote dialogue on the issues where private and public sector action can be taken to revitalize our downtown corridors. 

Strengthened our partnerships and resources to advance the communities we serve: 

• Renewed a $5.3M grant award for TalentReady from JPMorgan Chase and in collaboration with Education Strategy Group to support the next phase efforts of our skills and talent work that has already supported 25,000 high school students pursuing tech career pathways that include opportunities to earn college credit and industry recognized credentials. 
• Piloted Next Level: Elevating Diverse Entrepreneurs Accelerator Program with support from Truist Foundation and in collaboration with 1863 Ventures to provide customized technical assistance, coaching, and curated events to help 15 Black, Brown, and women business owners acquire, fulfill, and retain contracts for the region’s largest buyers. 

We were pleased to announce our incoming Greater Washington Partnership 2024 Board Chair will be Kathy Warden, Chair, Chief Executive Officer and President of Northrop Grumman Corporation. Her appointment represents historic firsts for the Partnership, as she will be the first woman, non-founder and CEO of a global corporation to lead the Board. We look forward to working with Kathy in 2024. 

With this passing of the torch, we also celebrated the incredible term of service of our Board Chair Peter L. Scher. Alongside fellow co-founders Russ Ramsey, Ted Leonsis and Tony Pierce, since 2021 Peter has led the Greater Washington Partnership to prosper by deepening our impact and expanding and strengthening our table. We are proud to have had Peter as an ambassador of our work for the past three years and grateful for his leadership as a chief architect for the collective vision to make the region the best place to live, work, and build a business. We thank Peter, Russ, Ted and Tony for their vision, constant championship and thought leadership for our region’s economic competitiveness.  

Scroll on for a look at some of our impactful moments from 2023.