Ithaca Area Economic Development has hired Andrew Beckmann to direct its business services work and Hailey Grasso for a new associate role, doubling the size of the team that assists local businesses and entrepreneurs.
Beckmann will manage relationships with businesses, entrepreneurs and referral partners while helping provide technical and financial assistance. His responsibilities include oversight of the group's revolving loan fund and administration of the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency and Tompkins County Development Corporation.
Beckmann most recently worked as a financial analyst for Cornell University Real Estate Asset Management. The group's Sept. 22 announcement says he studied at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the University of Hawaii, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in quantitative economics.
Tompkins County Legislator Deborah Dawson, who chairs the industrial development agency and development corporation, cited Beckmann's finance and capital-stacking background. She said she expects his work to benefit businesses and communities in Ithaca and Tompkins County.
Grasso, the new business services associate, will support the team's work with an emphasis on customizing its customer relationship management system. She graduated from SUNY Buffalo and earned a master's degree in public administration from SUNY Brockport, according to the announcement.
While in college, Grasso worked in municipal consulting and grant writing, focusing on community development and financing for water and sewer infrastructure. IAED President Kurt Foreman said the associate position was created to develop future economic development staff.
IAED is a private nonprofit serving Ithaca and Tompkins County. The industrial development agency, which Beckmann will help administer, is a public authority created by the county Legislature to provide economic incentives to businesses under state and federal law. The announcement does not specify when either hire began work or the team's new total head count.
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