CEDAS presented the following awards during its 2022 Annual Meeting in October.
Kenneth L. Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award – The Lifetime Achievement Award honors the legacy of Kenneth L. Roberts, his commitment to economic development in the state of Connecticut and his long-time service to DECD. The Kenneth L. Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded for the first time in 2014 to Michael Freimuth. Nominations welcomed for an economic developer or practitioner with at least 20 years’ experience who has made demonstrable contributions to the economic development field and impactful activities in Connecticut.
This year’s recipient is Jim Burke. Jim has retired as Windsor’s Economic Development Director after 21 years of service to the community. Prior to Windsor, Jim served more than two decades as economic development director for Dubuque, Iowa. During Jim’s tenure, Windsor grew in importance as a regional employment center capitalizing on its strategic location between Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA in New England’s Knowledge Corridor, as well as proximity to Bradley International Airport.
Jim facilitated projects that created over 7,000 new jobs and resulted in approximately $900 million in economic activity. Millions of square feet of additional office and industrial building space was constructed in key industries including financial services, precision manufacturing, logistics, data management and hospitality. The Day Hill Corporate area and New England Trade Port landed many recognizable national and international companies through Jim’s efforts and helped keep Windsor’s tax rates competitive.
Jim was also instrumental in the redevelopment of key properties in Windsor Center benefiting from the Hartford Line regional commuter rail service which began in 2018. These included a mill conversion into the 50-unit First Town Square condo project, as well as the Windsor Station Apartments containing 130 market-rate units directly across from the passenger rail station.
Jim was an active member of the Bradley Development League Operations Committee and served on the Board of the Connecticut Economic Development Association (CEDAS) from 2010-2018. While on the CEDAS Board he was Secretary and 2nd Vice President. During his tenure he was also chairman for the communication committee. He was instrumental in providing CEDAS members communications to the broader audience by adapting new forms of communications. In 2013, Jim was presented the CEDAS Member of the Year for his outstanding work and volunteering service to the association.
CEDAS Member of the Year Award – The Member of the Year Award recognizes a CEDAS member who has exhibited true leadership in economic development in a Connecticut community and has implemented an initiative that demonstrates real results and outcomes in the past year. Nominations can be individuals, teams or organizations. As such, they may consist of volunteers, practitioners, educators or elected officials and other persons.
The 2022 Member of the Year Award was presented to Toussaint Williams.
CEDAS President’s Award
This year’s President’s Award was presented to Kimberley Parsons-Whitaker.