CEO Council, United Way, ULI & Economy League Partner for Region's Future
World Class Greater Philadelphia Summit launches collaboration in three priority areas
(February 2, 2012 – Philadelphia) Four of the region’s top business and civic leadership organizations will announce their partnership tonight at a summit for World Class Greater Philadelphia, a multi-year initiative of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia to ensure that this region competes globally by 2026.
The Economy League will partner with the CEO Council for Growth on boosting business growth, with the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania on improving education and talent development outcomes, and with the Urban Land Institute Philadelphia to make our infrastructure more effective and reliable.
These three priority areas – Business Growth, Education and Talent Development, and Infrastructure – emerged from meetings with more than 1,000 leaders from across the region over the past two years to collectively identify the issues most important to the region’s future.
To make an impact in each priority area by 2026, the partners will produce Global Positioning Strategies (GPSes) that will identify the most promising short- and long-term ways to effect change. The GPSes will set the stage for immediate initiatives and campaigns to be taken on by World Class partners and will serve as open source documents available to any organization that wishes to adopt the proposed strategies into its own agenda.
A new Economy League report, Focus 2026: Priorities and Goals for a World Class Greater Philadelphia, details these three priority areas and associated aspirational goals and presents case studies of regional improvement efforts from across the US.
“World Class Greater Philadelphia is about collaborating on a few priorities and developing actionable plans with measurable outcomes,” said Steven T. Wray, Economy League Executive Director. “We can focus all of the region’s considerable leadership and talent to making Greater Philadelphia the best place that it can be -- for ourselves and for generations to come.”
The Economy League envisions that this summit will become an annual opportunity to evaluate and celebrate progress on the World Class priorities and goals.
World Class Greater Philadelphia’s co-chairs are Gerard H. Sweeney of Brandywine Realty Trust, Dr. Steven M. Altschuler of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Wendell E. Pritchett of Rutgers University-Camden, and Jane G. Pepper. For more information, visit www.WorldClassGreaterPhila.org, follow World Class via @WorldClassPhly, or download theiWorldClass app.
About the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia
The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to ensuring the region's prosperity through analysis and action. We bring together established and emerging leaders to understand the region's challenges and work toward innovative solutions.