ATLANTA – Invest Atlanta announced the hiring of Nathan Regan to serve as the agency’s senior vice president of Economic Development. Regan will lead the economic development team focusing on business attraction, business retention and expansion, small business development, innovation and entrepreneurship, foreign direct investment (FDI) and creative industries activities.
“The City of Atlanta’s economy continues to thrive, and a key to further growth and vitality is a renewed focus on target industry sectors and an expanded global development strategy,” said Dr. Eloisa Klementich, President and CEO of Invest Atlanta. “Nathan’s experience in economic development and leadership in building deep trade and investment connections with other countries will be a huge asset for increasing job growth and attracting new foreign direct investment.”
Before joining Invest Atlanta, Regan worked in both private industry and the public sector. He served as a legislative fellow to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, focusing on economic development, jobs, and energy and environmental legislation. Regan also served as a Senior International Investment Specialist in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SelectUSA unit, managing an international foreign direct investment team resulting in $500 million worth of investments and more than 1,000 new jobs. In this position, he served as a liaison with state and local economic development agencies around the country on FDI industry best practices and managed FDI projects coming from Europe.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to lead a top-tier economic development team,” said Nathan Regan. “I look forward to building off the recent success Invest Atlanta has had attracting global companies to the city, and I will work to support the innovative programs the organization has put in place to make this city one of the most competitive in the world.”
Prior to his federal service, Regan worked in sales and marketing in international business development. He began his career doing program management and business development for the U.S. operations of various European automotive supply companies. He later served as a commercial attaché with the French Consulate in Atlanta and was responsible for attracting French foreign direct investment to the region. He was subsequently recruited to join the Danish Trade Council in Atlanta, where he served as a Senior International Trade Specialist and was responsible for trade and investment ties between Georgia and Denmark. He oversaw the Danish Business Incubator and was responsible for creating more than 30 Atlanta-based companies and generating more than 200 jobs in the Atlanta metro region. In 2012, Regan was selected to manage the Bahrain Economic Development Board’s Washington, D.C. office, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies on increasing trade and investment in the Middle East.
Regan earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Furman University and a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He served as a Commissioner for Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Age-Friendly Business Initiative, where he worked to foster a more vibrant business community. He is a member of the International Economic Development Council and a native of Greenville, South Carolina.