Longtime Fairfax County Economic Development Head Jerry Gordon To Retire

Jerry Gordon, who has led the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority for over three decades, plans to retire at the end of this year. 

FCEDA announced Gordon's retirement Monday and said its seven-member board will lead a search for Gordon's successor. 

Gordon will begin in January as a fellow in the College of Charleston's Joseph P. Riley Center for Livable Communities and will teach in the college's Master of Public Administration program. Gordon holds a doctorate in international economics from Catholic University and a master's degree from George Washington University, and he has written 13 books on planning and economic development. 

Since Gordon began leading FCEDA in 1987, the county's office market has grown from 32M SF to 117M SF and it has grown from 243,000 jobs to over 600,000. Ten Fortune 500 companies have chosen the county for their headquarters, including Capital One, Northrup Grumman and Hilton. 

“Throughout the past 30 years Jerry Gordon has been on the leading edge for moving Fairfax County into the world-class business location it is today,” said Fairfax County Board Chairman Sharon Bulova, who will keynote Bisnow's Fairfax County Forecast event Oct. 2. “No one is a fiercer advocate for Fairfax County and I will personally miss working with him.” 

In addition to leading FCEDA, Gordon has chaired several local boards, including the Arts Council of Fairfax County and the Foundation for Fairfax County Public Schools. Gordon has received several honors for his work, including the International Economic Development Council's Jeffrey A. Finkle Organizational Leadership Award in 2015. 

“Without any doubt, my greatest accomplishment has been the assembly of an extraordinary team of professionals who — individually and collectively — represent the finest economic development team in America, perhaps in the world," Gordon said. "We have been extremely fortunate to have been strongly supported by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the FCEDA Commission and the business community at large.”