Ed Morrison is founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks, based in Cleveland, and publisher of EDPro (http://edpro-weblog.net), a popular weblog for economic development professionals. He is also economic policy advisor to the Center for Regional
Development at Purdue University.

Ed has developed a new model for economic development: Open Source Economic Development. The model promotes the development of open innovation systems ("clusters") to accelerate regional development. He is currently applying this model in Indiana in Northeast Ohio and in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.

For over nineteen years, he has been conducting strategy projects with economic developers in the U.S. His work won the first Arthur D. Little Award for excellence in economic development presented by the American Economic Development Council. Ed is the architect of the strategic economic development plan for Oklahoma City, and he served as economic development consultant to the Chamber from 1994 to 2002.  Ed designed and launched an economic development strategy for the city in 1996. The business community committed $10 million for this aggressive five-year economic development action plan. Businesses invested an additional $12 million to fund the strategy beginning in 2001.

He founded the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana and served as a consultant to President Dan Reneau of Louisiana Tech University on university research and technology transfer. He drafted the development code for Ascension Parish, Louisiana, among the fastest growing counties in the state. He served as consultant to the parish planning commission from 1998 to 2003.

Ed authored the 1998 report for the Commission on the Future of the South, chaired by former Kentucky governor, Martha Layne Collins. Governors in 14 Southern states appoint the Commission every six years to chart an economic development course for the South. The governors unanimously endorsed the 1998 Commission report, and then Governor Zell Miller of Georgia called it the “best Commission report ever written.”

From 1998 to 2003, Ed managed the community assessment program for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. This initiative improves development prospects throughout rural Kentucky. Since 1998, Ed has taught economic development strategy at the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

Ed travels to China frequently. His extensive experience in China began in 1986, when the Hong Kong Industry Department retained him as a consultant. Since that time he has worked for the United Nations Development Program, and for private investors.

Prior to starting his economic development work, Ed worked for Telesis, a corporate strategy consulting firm. In this position, he served on consulting teams for clients such as Ford Motor Company, Volvo, and General Electric. He conducted manufacturing cost studies in the U.S., Japan, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Sweden, and France.

Ed started his professional career in Washington, D.C., where he has served as a legislative assistant to an Ohio Congressman, staff attorney in the Federal Trade Commission, and staff counsel in the US Senate. He holds a BA degree cum laude with honors from Yale University and MBA and JD degrees from the University of Virginia.