The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama announced the launch of the Alabama Business Intelligence Center, which will generate actionable data to recruit and retain businesses in the state.
The center exists to increase business leads, strengthen partnerships, collaborate with allies and partners to unlock quantitative and qualitative information and position the state for business growth.
“Every business sector is increasingly dependent upon quality business intelligence to develop actionable strategies,” said Greg Barker, president of EDPA. “Economic development is not any different, and I am completely confident that the Alabama Business Intelligence Center will be able to provide the needed business intelligence so Alabama can continue to build on its economic development success.”
The center will be led by Lauren Hyde, who is chartered financial analyst (CFA) charterholder.
“ABIC will utilized a risk-return framework of thinking when analyzing opportunities. We are committed to long-term investment in Alabama. It’s not just dollars, incentives or time. It’s jobs and infrastructure. And we’re here to generate the actionable data insights needed to encourage this investment,” said Hyde.
ABIC will work with a number of partners including EDPA, Alabama Department of Commerce and Opportunity Alabama. Opportunity Alabama, funded through a CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant, is a statewide nonprofit that is the catalyst for investment in meaningful projects and underserved places.
“In order to execute substantive, place-based strategic interventions, we need to understand local communities in a data-driven way, and ABIC will allow us to do just that,” said Alex Flachsbart, founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama.
