James Goodram

General Manager Economic Development & Tourism at City of Guelph

Speaker

James has over 25 years working in the municipalities of Ancaster, Hamilton, Haldimand, Cambridge and now Guelph. His focus and most enjoyable part of his work has been in land development working with developers, builders and businesses to facilitate bringing their projects to fruition. It is the private sector that takes the risks, makes the investments and creates jobs and the municipality’s role is to create the environment for it.

James has worked with the development community to bring on tens of millions of square feet of non-residential space, 1000’s of residential units and thousands of retained and new jobs. James has developed incentives for development for several communities in Ontario. The Guelph Economic Development and Tourism Department consists of 5 divisions including: Economic Development, Tourism, Guelph Junction Railway, Downtown Renewal and Real Estate. There are many exciting projects coming up in Guelph including a $100 million plus Downtown Infrastructure Renewal Project, the Guelph Innovation District as well as the final phase of the Hanlon Creek Business Park.