Dr. Alfie Meek has spent 30 years turning economic and fiscal data into decisions for the state and local leaders who have to live with the results.
Dr. Alfie Meek is a nationally recognized economist and the Director of the Center for Economic Development Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also President and CEO of Economic Impact Group, LLC (EIG), a firm specializing in economic and fiscal analysis that supports state and local economic development — and the creator of LOCI®, the fiscal-impact software licensed by communities across the country.
Over the years, Dr. Meek has served the State of Georgia in a range of roles, including the technical advisory committee for the Georgia Rural Development Council and the Rural Research Consortium. More recently he served as a member of Governor Kemp's Coronavirus Task Force Economic Impact Committee, and has been asked to serve on Governor Kemp's Council of Economic Advisors.
For many years, Dr. Meek was the Chief Economist and Director of Economic Analysis for Gwinnett County, Georgia, where he oversaw the county's economic development program. Before his time in local government, he spent three years as Director of Applied Research at the University of Georgia's Business Outreach Services and Small Business Development Center. Early in his career, he was the Research Economist for SunTrust Banks, Inc.
Current areas of special focus include economic and fiscal impact analysis, forecasting and modeling, work-force issues, tax policy analysis, and target industry analysis. In recent years, Dr. Meek has concentrated on the fiscal impact of investment tax credits in states including Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Indiana, Rhode Island — and, of course, Georgia. He has testified before state legislatures in multiple states on the fiscal impact of tax credits, and is considered a nationally recognized expert in fiscal analysis.
Beyond his consulting work, Dr. Meek speaks widely on economic impact and economic development, and has written for economic-development publications and other periodicals.