Dr. Bill LaFayette is owner of Regionomics®, a consulting firm focused on helping clients understand and thrive in local economies – neighborhoods, communities, and regions. Services include economic development strategy, workforce strategy, economic impact analysis, economic and demographic analysis, and fiscal analysis.
Bill brings to his work 30 years of experience in economic development and economic analysis in central Ohio. Prior to founding Regionomics in 2011, he spent 12 years as vice president of economic analysis for the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and four years with Rickenbacker Port Authority, which formerly managed Rickenbacker International Airport and its Global Logistics Park and Foreign-Trade Zone.
Previously, he was a full-time member of the finance and real estate faculties of Ashland University and the University of North Texas, and is currently an adjunct faculty member of The Ohio State University’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs.
Bill is coauthor of Knowledge Economies and Knowledge Work (Emerald Publishing, 2019) and has produced an economic forecast for the Columbus metropolitan area annually since 2000.
Bill is a board member of the Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, a commissioner of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), and a member of the Columbus Metropolitan Club Program Committee.
A recognized authority on the Ohio and Columbus economies, Bill earned a Ph.D. in real estate economics from The Ohio State University in 1994. He also holds an M.B.A. in investment management and a B.S., Summa cum Laude, in finance and accounting, both from Wright State University. He is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Columbus and the 2018 inductee into the Leadership Columbus Hall of Fame.
In his off hours, Bill takes long walks, enjoys 20th Century concert music, and collects popular, jazz, and country recordings from the dawn of the talking machine more or less to the present.