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Doug Henton, founder
and president of the Silicon Valley-based firm of
Collaborative Economics, knows how to think economics,
strategize regionally, and draw together civic alliances
for the improvement of American communities.
In the early ‘90s,
he managed the start-up of the Joint Venture: Silicon
Valley Network, a strategic planning effort involving
more than 1,200 leaders. Joint Venture is now recognized
as a national model of business-led regional development.
Henton continues today as senior advisor to the
project, guiding its Annual Index of Silicon Valley.
Stressing always
the collaborative approach, Henton’s advised
the California Economic Strategy Panel and led the
team that created the Monterey Bay Futures Network
to ease that region’s adjustment to the Ford
Ord base closing. He has spurred collaboratives
in Santa Barbara, Sacramento and San Diego and,
on the international scene, advised Adelaide, Australia
on its new integrated urban development and economic
strategy. Other clients include the James Irvine
Foundation and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
Henton founded Collaborative
Economics in 1993, after a decade at SRI, where
he directed local, state and regional economic strategy
projects spanning from Florida to California. As
assistant director of SRI’s International Center
for Economic Competitiveness, Henton advised the
President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness,
the Western Governors’ Association and federal
agencies. He also directed major projects on the
economic future of Hong Kong, the technopolis strategy
in Japan and regional development in China.
With colleagues Kim Walesh and John
Melville, Henton wrote Grassroots Leaders for the New Economy:
How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities,
published in 1997. The book concludes that while the old order of
civic leaders may be fading, new globally-oriented leaders are simultaneously
emerging. In their newest book, Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting
the Passion for Change in America's Communities, the trio associates
today's regional and civic leaders with America's founders, providing
multiple examples of effective citistate-wide initiatives.
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