Richard M. McConkie 
Director - Community and Economic Development

Richard McConkie was appointed director of Community and Economic Development for Ogden City in January 2010.  He graduated with honors from the University of Utah and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Brigham Young University.  Mr. McConkie has over 30 years of experience in the field of economic development with an emphasis on redevelopment.  He is an advocate for public-private partnerships to advance community development.  While working in Ogden, Mr. McConkie participated in the restoration of Historic 25th Street - the largest collection of period-style architecture between Denver and San Francisco, conversion of an 1100 acre military installation into a business and manufacturing park, redevelopment of the old Ogden City Mall into a vibrant entertainment and lifestyle center, and numerous individual projects that have propelled Ogden forward.   

He served in public office as a member of the Juab County Board of Education as well as having served on various non-profit and for-profit boards and commissions.

He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and has served as President of the Utah Redevelopment Association and board member of the Utah Alliance for Economic Development. 

His wealth of knowledge and broad experience have enabled him to play a significant role in the direction of economic development in Ogden City. 

 

Tom T. Christopulos
Deputy Director - Community and Economic Development

Over the past 30 years Tom has had a diverse mix of private and public sector experiences both as an entrepreneur and economic development professional. Currently, he is the Deputy Director of Community and Economic Development with Ogden City Corporation. 

Prior to his public sector employment with Ogden City, Tom was Founder and President of Singleedge Inc.  a Data Center founded in 2000 and acquired in 2007.  The company was built from a small local data facility to one of the larger regional facilities during his tenure.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Tonaquint Data Center in St. George, Utah and Utah Capital.   He has been an active real estate developer with over 1000 acres developed throughout Utah and has done site location for a number of retail developers throughout the United States.  

This diversity started early in his career as an investment analyst whose primary investments areas were ethanol, audio metrics, and auto related retail development.   In even worked on syndication of thoroughbred racing horses!

In the public sector he has head economic initiatives Morgan County and for Layton City.  He has also consulted to a number of smaller rural communities through his economic development consulting company Rural Designers, which focuses on communities with deeply embedded economic distress.   

He is past President of Utah Alliance of Economic Developers, Board Member of Utah Capital, founder and board member of Ogden Redevelopment Corporation, a CDFI.  

He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in International Relations and his graduate degree was obtained from Pepperdine University in Organizational Development. 

Stephen Fishburn 
Business Development Manager

 

Steve Fishburn comes to Ogden City after a 20 year career in the travel industry.  He was President and CEO of Fishburn World Travel, Inc., one of Utah’s first and largest travel agencies.  He was instrumental in the merger and acquisition of Morris Travel, one of the largest travel companies in the United States.  He was a partner and Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Relations as the company grew to over 50 offices with sales of over $350 million.

After selling the company in 1995, Mr. Fishburn has been involved in numerous successful commercial and residential real estate developments.

Mr. Fishburn has served as a Director of the Utah Travel Council, Director of the American Society of Travel Agents and for 10 years, Chairman of the Farr West Planning Commission.

Mr. Fishburn attended Brigham Young University – Idaho and Weber State University on a football scholarship where he studied business management and marketing.

 

 

Kamie Geiger
Senior Project Coordinator - Marketing

Kamie joined the Ogden City Business Development team as a Sr. Project Coordinator in the spring of 2006, and has been responsible for coordinating all aspects of business development. She has been instrumental in completing development projects in Ogden’s central business district including The Junction, retail developments on the east side of Washington Blvd and recruiting new companies to the area.

She brought over 30 years of experience in sales, marketing, and project management as an entrepreneur, in the ski, real estate and construction industries. Her relationships in the Outdoor and Ski Industries have been helpful in exposing Ogden’s assets to companies in those industries looking to consolidate or relocate.

Her skill and knowledge has proven to be effective in building relationships, coordinating construction projects, recruiting companies, and bringing more retail to the central business district in Ogden.  Her efforts in the past 5 years have helped to bring thousands of jobs and opportunities to the community.

As a lifelong Ogden resident she is passionate about the revitalization of Ogden’s downtown area, and strives to bring vibrancy back into the heart of Ogden.   

 

Brandon W. Cooper, LEED AP
Senior Development Coordinator 

Brandon Cooper is a Senior Development Coordinator and also serves as the Ogden City Brownfields Coordinator. In these positions, Mr. Cooper oversees all facets of the Department's real estate construction projects such as:

• Tenant improvements
• Capital improvements
• Environmental planning, assessment, remediation, and compliance
• Tenant programming
• Construction estimating, contract management, and procurement
• Business Recruitment
• Development Coordination

Mr. Cooper came to Ogden City in 2007 after a 15-year career in real-estate development and commercial contracting. His knowledge of private sector real estate and construction transactions offers a keen insight into the challenges and expectations facing businesses and developers as they seek to relocate or expand within the community. This insight allows the Department to offer an elevated level of service to businesses and helps to facilitate innovative incentives and customized support packages. During his time with Ogden City, Mr. Cooper has managed over $50 million dollars in real estate and construction transactions and has coordinated and implemented over $2 million dollars in environmental assessment and cleanup. 

Mr. Cooper's community involvement includes church and civic volunteer work. He enjoys mountain biking, classic cars, skateboarding, and spending time with his lovely wife and 4 children. Mr. Cooper attended the University of Utah where he studied Business and Psychology. In 2007, he was recognized by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) as a LEED Accredited Professional and is passionate about supporting green initiatives.  

 

Terrence Bride
Assistant Business Development Manager

Terrence Bride was educated at the University of Utah where he received degrees in Economics and Political Science.   As an economist for the State of Utah he worked closely with the US Department of Labor.  He has 9 years experience in directing and administering economic and community development programs throughout Utah and in rural Appalachia, where his strengths were strategic planning, economic impact analysis, market feasibility studies, government/business partnerships, marketing, business recruitment/retention, and infrastructure development. 

As Senior Property Development Director with the largest retail diesel fuel reseller in North America, he worked independently to increase totals sales by more than $2.5 billion annually through the aggressive entitlement and permitting of facilities throughout the US, Canada and Europe. This multi-disciplinary process involved business and logistics metrics research, retail tax, cost benefit, land use and entitlement, and economic impact analyses.  He is recognized by his colleagues across North America and Europe as a consummate expert in unpopular land use entitlement for projects that may be poorly understood.  He has been effective at acquiring tens of millions of dollars through public and private partnerships to create project critical infrastructure. In both his public and private sector work he has been effective in overcoming contentious opposition through diplomacy; his style is one of listening, informing, educating, and building alliances.    In his positions, he has always served as spokesman, working with the media, public relations, and presentations, being adept at working with local, state, provincial, and federal staff and elected officials.  As a consequence of his successful economic development work in rural Appalachia he was invited to meet and dine with the president of the United States in the Whitehouse.   

Mr. Bride has served as treasurer and secretary on Metro Utah, Inc. and as a trustee of Small Cities, Inc., and on a hospital board.  He was also a licensed real estate appraiser and has been certified in financial management for nonprofits through the University of Utah.  Bride is currently the Assistant Business Develoment Manager in the Ogden Community and Economic Development Department.

 

Jeanne Harris
Senior Project Coordinator - BIC Manager

Jeanne is a Sr. Project Coordinator for the Business Development Department and the manager of the Business Information Center (BIC).  Jeanne administers the Small Business Loan Program for Ogden City, and currently manages a portfolio of over 100 Ogden City loans with a dollar amount in excess of $10 million of federally funded and bank participated commercial and residential loans.

Jeanne has extensive experience in management, budget preparation and administration, loan portfolio management, loan program development, financial management, policy development, and CRA and federal program compliance auditing.   Jeanne has been employed by Ogden City in her current capacity since January 2002.  She has developed and implemented all phases of the loan programs that she administers, as well as operating procedures and guidelines for both the loans and the Business Information Center. 

Jeanne has over 35 years experience in all phases of loan production including origination, processing, underwriting, loan servicing and the secondary market.  Of the 34 years, 26 of them were in the banking industry in various management positions in the areas described.  

 

Carolyn Brierley 
Special Events Coordinator

Carolyn Brierley is the Community and Special Events Coordinator for the city of Ogden.  She has extensive experience and knowledge of event production and management and has produced several events for Ogden including the Historic 25^th Street Car Show, Street Festival, Ogden Marathon, Oktoberfest, Holiday Electric Light Parade, Christmas Village, Witchstock, Talent in the Park concert series, etc.  She manages the event permitting process for over 100 public events held annually in Ogden, assuring that all health, safety and licensing requirements are met by event coordinators.  She has created policies, procedures and ordinances to control all aspects of public events.  She also oversees the Special Event Advisory Committee which evaluates events for the Mayor and City Council.

Ms. Brierley also manages contracts for Ogden City Arts, the Ogden Marathon and the Farmers Market, all of which are Ogden City programs that are contracted to private firms to manage.  She oversees the Arts granting program and the Percent for Art program, both of which help in creating a better community in which to live.

Ms. Brierley represents the city on several local boards and committees such as the GOAL Foundation, Women in Business, Historic 25 business Association, and the Ogden-Weber Chamber.  She has been employed by Ogden City since 1998. Prior to 1998 she worked for Westinghouse/Western Zirconium and was extremely involved on a volunteer basis with the Corporate Sports Challenge and many other Ogden events.