Mr. Alfie Meek is the Director of the Forecasting and Research Division wkhin the Gwinnett County Department of Financial Services. Prior to joining Gwinnett County, Mr. Meek spent three years as the Director of Applied Research at The University of Georgia's Business Outreach Services arid Small Business Development Center. lie has also served the State of Georgia as an economist and project director for the Center for Economic Development Services at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Preceding his tenure at Georgia Tech, Mr. Meek was the Research Economist for SunTrust Banks, Inc. His current areas of special focus include economic and fiscal impact analysis, forecasting and modeling, work-force issues, tax policy and target industry analysis. In addition to his research Mr. Meek speaks widely on topics relating to economic development. Frequent topics include economic impact, cost/benefit and target industry analysis. He also designed and taught Internet for Economic Developers I and II, a series of courses attended by hundreds of economic development professionals from all parts of the U.S. and from as far away as Chili. Mr. Meek has also written for economic development-related publications, as well as other periodicals. His research on the size and economic impact of the sports industry in the U.S. was published in Sport Marketing Quarterly. This research into the Sports Industry has been written about in numerous publications - USA Today, Georgia Trend, Financial Times London, Fortune Magazine and Investors Business Daily among others. He has been an active member of the Georgia Economic Development Association, the American Economic Association, and the National Association for Business Economics and is a past president of the Atlanta Economics Club. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics. He holds Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Economics from Georgia State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively. Mr. Meek is a native of Atlanta and resides with his wife Pilar and their son Aidan in Suwanee, Georgia.