Research Economist, University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business

Joseph C. Von Nessen, ’09 Ph.D. economics, is a research economist in the Division of Research at the Darla Moore School of Business where he specializes in regional economics, regional economic forecasting and housing economics. He regularly conducts a wide variety of economic impact analyses, feasibility studies and independent market research projects for clients in both the private and public sector.

Von Nessen engages in industry-level and regional economic forecasting for organizations at the state, national and international level. He has served as lead researcher on projects with clients as diverse as Sonoco, BlueCross BlueShield, Michelin, Boeing and the Savannah River National Lab, among others. He has also been the recipient of many grants from both local and national sources, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Von Nessen is also responsible for the preparation and presentation of the University of South Carolina's annual statewide economic forecast. He serves on the advisory committee of the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors and is regularly invited to brief the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond on economic conditions in South Carolina. He frequently appears on programs at national conventions, including the International Builders Show, the 21st Century Building Expo and the North American Regional Science Council and its subsidiaries.

In addition, Von Nessen specializes in housing economics and residential real estate and provides economic and marketing research and consulting services to builders, developers and other businesses in the housing industry on a regular basis. His recent academic research has focused on the application of hedonic house price modeling to the housing industry. He is a member of the National Association of Home Builders and is actively involved with the local branches of the Home Builders Association and the Association of REALTORS throughout South Carolina.

Von Nessen is a frequent speaker for business and government leaders throughout the southeast, providing information and consultation about business, housing markets and local economies. He also makes frequent media appearances to discuss various local economic topics of interest.

Division of Research Director and Professor of Economics, University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business

Woodward earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986. He joined the University of South Carolina faculty in 1987.

Woodward’s primary research interests are regional economics, firm location, urban and industrial clustering, and foreign direct investment. He is co-author of a book on foreign direct investment in the United States, “The New Competitors,” ranked as one of the “top ten business and economics books” by Business Week and listed by Fortune as one of the books “CEOs are reading." He has published widely in academic journals, including the Journal of Urban Economics, the Journal of Regional Science, Regional Science and Urban Economics, the Journal of Economic Geography, and the Review of Economics and Statistics.

His recently published papers have investigated local area labor matching and knowledge spillovers. Woodward also has ongoing research comparing regional economic cluster development across the world. He has ongoing research investigating foreign investment and economic development in Africa.

Over his career, Woodward has received numerous grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and many other funding agencies. He has testified before local, state and national government committees and has presented his research at many conferences around the world, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has often appeared in the media discussing economic development and related topics.

Woodward served as the 2013 president of the North American Regional Science Council. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Regional Science and the Review of Regional Studies. From 2010 to 2011, he was president of the Southern Regional Science Association and was honored to be named as a fellow of the association in 2016.

Chief Economist, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Dubay tracks the condition of the economy, analyzes the impact of public policy on economic growth and runs the Chamber’s Chief Economists Committee. The committee consists of chief economists from member businesses. It helps the Chamber formulate economic policies and provides analysis to policymakers in Washington, D.C.

Previously, Dubay was senior economist at the American Bankers Association, where he worked on tax issues and followed the economic trends affecting the banking industry. Prior to ABA, he was a research fellow in tax and economic policy at The Heritage Foundation. There he researched and published on tax and economic policy issues.

Earlier in his career, Dubay worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the firm’s transfer pricing division structuring international transactions. Before PwC, he was at the Tax Foundation where he authored three widely recognized and cited reports: Tax Freedom Day, State-Local Tax Burdens and The State Business Tax Climate Index.

Dubay has researched and published frequently on a wide range of tax and economic issues. He is regularly quoted by the press and has appeared often in the media, including on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News and C-SPAN. He has testified before Congress several times and been cited in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and Politico.

Dubay received his master’s degree in economics from the University of Connecticut and his bachelor’s degree in economics and leadership studies from the University of Richmond. He resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three sons.

CEO, Catapult Employers Association

Catapult serves more than 2,000 small-to-medium-size businesses with a wide array of human resources support. Prior to joining Catapult, Richards spent more than 30 years in higher education, serving as president of Johnson & Wales University, Charlotte and founding CEO & regional dean of Northeastern University, Charlotte.

Appointed by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Richards serves on the NC Works Commission and as member of the Employers Leadership Committee, helping enable the state’s workforce and businesses to compete in the global economy.

A recognized community leader, she has been honored twice as a Most Admired CEO, and has been featured in the Top 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders, Top 25 Women in Business, 50 Most Influential Women, and in 2014, she was named Woman of the Year.

Dr. Richards holds a bachelor’s in speech communication, a master’s in student affairs in higher education, and a Ph.D. in leadership for higher education.