Letter from Our Chair

We are Hampton Roads.

It’s where we are, but more importantly, it’s who and what we are.

We are a collection of communities that provides our residents an immensely diverse and uniquely comfortable place to live, learn, work and play. We are a steady economic engine that provides almost a million people with quality jobs and career opportunities. We are a region of strategic military and national defense significance to our country. We are Virginia’s international gateway that provides a two-way flow of trade and commerce throughout Virginia, the entire mid-Atlantic mega region and the US heartland. We are an academic and training portal through which students and workers gain and sharpen the skills they need to compete in an increasingly challenging and ever-changing world.

When all these ingredients are aligned, combined and packaged, we are the economic region of Hampton Roads. That is who and what we are. It is the fundamental value proposition we offer. It is the Alliance’s job to position and promote this economic region as a location of choice for new and expanding businesses and industry. It is our job to work with our community and private sector partners and leverage our combined resources and collective efforts to take the Hampton Roads message to market. By doing so, we generate new business and industry job creating opportunities for our communities, specifically, and the region overall. The Alliance recognizes that the best way to tell our story to the world is to help our communities tell their individual stories in their own voice and from their own perspective. It is our job to take these unique and distinctive stories and knit them together into a compelling and convincing regional message. So, in this year’s Annual Report, you will find a collection of events, messages and stories from each of our member communities. You will see the Hampton Roads story as it is most effectively told, from the inside out. These stories clearly demonstrate the numerous advantages we have to offer and the many positive developments underway across the region of Hampton Roads.

Over the past year, the Alliance has reorganized and repositioned. A new governance and stakeholder engagement structure has been implemented. We worked with our partners to launch an entirely new effective investment promotion strategy. This will enhance the effectiveness of the region’s efforts to create, grow and recruit businesses and high-quality jobs in Hampton Roads. The Alliance is on the right course, and we are passionate about telling our story to the world. We need your help and hope you will join us as we work together to tell the world… we are Hampton Roads!

C. Grigsby Scifres Williams Mullen 2017 & 2018 Chair