Marcia Crawford, began her tenure with the Harrison County Development Commission (HCDC) in 2005 where she serves as the Director of Information & Retiree Attraction. Her areas of responsibility include administration (HCDC; MS Coast Foreign Trade Zone), business retention and expansion (industry; military), relocation information (growing and enriching the relocated household community), and Director of the MS Gulf Coast Retiree Partnership program. Her on-the-job experience was supplemented by relevant studies including USM's New South Economic Development course, and she’s served as a member of the Gulf Coast Newcomers Board, Triad Board, HSMAI Board, RSVP Advisory Council and Hometown MS Living Advisory Council.

Marcia moved from Reno, Nevada to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi 10 months in advance of Katrina. She and her recently retired husband had conducted an extensive search of locales across the country. An article in Where to Retire magazine inspired an exploratory visit to the Gulf Coast and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jeff Fleming, is the Assistant City Manager for Development in Kingsport, Tennessee, a community of 44,400 located on the Virginia state line in the Appalachian foothills. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from East Tennessee State University in political science and urban planning.

Jeff began his career as a planning intern in 1984 and worked his way through the ranks for the past 25 years. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia's Senior Executive Institute and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Past honors include selection as one of Kingsport's "Leaders of Tomorrow" (1988), finalist for Kingsport's Outstanding Young Man (1985), and Downtown Kingsport Association's "I Love This Place Award" (2006).

 For the past 4 years, he has managed the social media components for Kingsport, Tennessee.  These components include a community blog that averages 160,000 visits per year and simulcasts on Facebook and Twitter.

Bill Houghton has served as the President of The Landings Company on Savannah’s Skidaway Island (4,400-homesite community in coastal Georgia) since early 2010.   Prior to his joining that community, Houghton directed the Marketing efforts at Reynolds Companies, a Georgia-based corporation whose assets include the Reynolds Plantation, Achasta and Reynolds Blue Ridge communities, a Ritz-Carlton hotel, seven golf courses, a real estate investment fund, plus homebuilding and jet  management companies.

Amongst his professional accomplishments are his having founded the Public Relations Department at one of the nation’s largest golf and tourism advertising agencies, his three year tenure as chair of Lake Oconee (Georgia) Tourism, and his being named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” in the golf industry by Golfweek magazine.  Houghton is originally from the Philadelphia area, where he obtained his MBA (in Marketing Research) at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Shelly Jackson joined GVR in February 2002 as the Human Resources Assistant. Shelly has an extensive background in Accounting as a Full Charge Bookkeeper for a Travel/Party Supply Rental/Apartment Management company and Revenue Manager for a charter airline based in Tucson.

Over the last 10 years at GVR Shelly has held positions as a Member Services Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, Volunteer Supervisor and Assistant Manager for the Recreation Department. In 2011, Shelly accepted the position of GVR’s very first Public Relations Representative.

Diana O'Toole has nineteen (19) years experience in the travel and tourism industry; eight as a professional leisure travel agent and eleven years with the Tourism Division of the Mississippi Development Authority.  She currently serves as Senior Associate Manager with the Tourism Division and is Program Manager for the Hometown MS Retirement Program.

Believing that Hospitality Training and Customer Service are the keys to the success of tourism, retirement or other economic development, Diana was instrumental in the development of an innovative approach to Hospitality/Customer Service Training for the State of Mississippi.

She serves as program speaker for Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and other civic organizations and as a tourism resource professional with the Mississippi Main Street Association.

Michael Notartomaso is the president of the Hilton Head Group, Inc. located in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Hilton Head Group and its affiliated companies have been involved in the business of resort and community development in the southeast since 1976. The Hilton Head Group has developed projects for its own account and that of its principals as well as for private investors and development clients.

The Hilton Head Group provides turnkey expertise for startups including feasibility, acquisition, strategic planning, product development, financing, construction, marketing, sales and operations. Mr. Notartomaso’s extensive experience includes shared ownership development (timesharing, fractional ownership and private residence clubs). Condominium and master-planned community developments have primarily been amenity oriented, either natural or designed. Conservation easements / limited development strategies have been employed in several developments under the direction of Mr. Notartomaso and his associates.

Dave Robertson since the 1980’s, has been involved in promoting resort and retiree real estate to buyers across the nation. He has been instrumental in building RPI Media; established as Realty Presentations Inc., in 1989, into a premier destination marketing company. They have generated billions of dollars in property sales for resort & retirement communities with their Ideal and Live South:publications, web services/sites and expos.

 Dave has consulted for Reynolds Signature Communities, the State of Tennessee Rural Economic Development, Hometown Mississippi Retirement, the Evergreen Fund, and numerous other entities involved in the establishment, promotion and restructuring of planned residential communities.

He serves as editor, Ideal Living Magazine, president, RPI Media. He Chaired the American Association of Retirement Communities Board of Directors 2002-2006 and serves on the board. His network of industry contacts includes builders, developers and real estate marketers throughout the world.

He served as vice president to publisher Williams & Simpson (Greenville, NC). Dave developed the “Newcomer Program” and established the Greater Wilmington (NC) Chamber of Commerce’s publications in house. He also served on the boards of the Apartment Association of North Carolina and the Cape Fear Advertising Federation. Dave was a founding board member of both the Cumberland County (Fayetteville, NC) and Wilmington Apartment Associations. He holds Alabama, Florida and North Carolina Real Estate Brokers licenses.

He graduated from East Carolina University with a concentration in journalism and minor in business. Dave resides in Florida and has a farm near Wilmington, NC.

Dr. Jim Taylor, Vice-Chairman of Harrison Group, is among the country’s most respected marketing and branding consultants. At Harrison Group, Jim directs syndicated research, consulting projects, and services to customers in the luxury, real estate and financial services categories. Jim’s current clients include American Express and American Express Publishing, Chanel, Gucci, Bombardier/Flexjet, Montage Hotels, Dividend Capital Corp., UBS Private Wealth Management, Keeneland Farms, Fairmont Hotels, Nieman Marcus with active engagements covering targeting, brand strategy, market structure, sales forecasting and concept development and ratification.

Virtually every major business publication in America and most in Europe and Japan has quoted him. Moreover, he has contributed articles to a variety of top, far-ranging national publications, notably Advertising Age, American Demographics, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, USA Today. In the past year, Jim was quoted in more than 150 major newspapers, radio and television programs.

Taylor directs the American Express Publishing Harrison Group Study of Affluence and Wealth in America, a highly regarded annual examination of trends and purchase dynamics among America's top 10% households. Taylor manages additional syndicated studies on women, teens and general population issues. Jim has authored three books, the most recent is his September, 2008 collaboration with Doug Harrison and Stephen Kraus The New Elite: Inside the Mind of America's Truly Wealthy (AMACOM).