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May 28, 2020

PIDC HONORS LONGTIME CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF PIDC, M. WALTER D’ALESSIO, AS HE RETIRES

After 48 years of service to PIDC, M. Walter D’Alessio retired and chaired his last Board of PIDC meeting on April 21. Read our full Board Resolution here. You Can’t Say “PIDC” Without “WALT” Walt arrived in Philadelphia in 1960, beginning an unprecedented 60 year career in planning, developing, financing, and managing major economic development

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May 28, 2020

Walt D’Alessio: A Legacy of Impact in Philadelphia

By William Kenny It’s difficult to imagine a Philadelphia without Walt D’Alessio, a farmer’s son from rural Butler County, Pennsylvania, who ventured east in 1960 for an American Institute of Planners convention and has called the City of Brotherly Love home ever since. Had D’Alessio — the former CEO and longtime chairman of the city’s

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May 28, 2020

Walter D’Alessio: Leadership Personified

By Joan Fuchsman What qualities comprise a leader? Innovative thinking? Wisdom? Generosity? Kindness? Upon hearing from former chairs of the Council for Urban Economic Development (CUED), now called the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), you quickly realize that Walter D’Alessio is the embodiment of leadership. The International Economic Development Council is the membership organization for

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May 28, 2020

Walt D’Alessio: Influential Leadership in Urban Economic Development

By Kenneth Dobson WALT D’ALESSIO brought a new dimension of leadership to IEDC through his professional private-sector business approach to economic development. He was a brilliant no-nonsense, transactional economic development mind, quick wit, great sense of humor, and wise counselor in matters of business, politics, socioeconomics, and urban economic development problem-solving ingenuity. Where other great

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