Welcome to Central Alberta Economic Partnership (CAEP)

Paige Webster started his firm in 2013. Paige has worked with many projects across many industry sectors including: aerospace, bio tech, geo-thermal, wind & solar, warehouse/distribution, office projects, data centers, corporate centers and the retail sector. Paige has been working in site selection and economic development for twenty years.

Paige has had extensive site selection experience as he was the Western Regional Real Estate Manager for Aaron Rents. Paige was able to facilitate and expand the major retail expansion for Aaron Rents in the Western United States.

Paige has had experience in the Economic Development arena too. He was the former Economic Development Director for the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation. Paige’s experience includes working with back office, warehouse distribution, bio-tech, software development companies and food processing companies for the Yuma area.

Paige did extensive work in cross border economic development and was a member of the Border Trade Alliance (BTA) and worked closely with the Arizona Governor’s Office on cross border issues in Mexico. Paige was on the Workforce Development Board and was also a Board Member of the Arizona Association of Economic Development (AAED). Paige has also received the CEcD designation during his career in Economic Development.

Paige also worked for the Arizona Department of Commerce as the Northern Arizona Representative, assisting companies to expand or relocate to the State of Arizona with projects related to injection molding, warehouse/distribution, back office, agro-business, bio-tech, high tech, aviation.

Paige has received his BS in Regional Development from University of Arizona and has also received his MBA in Global Management from the University of Phoenix. Paige resides in Phoenix, AZ and loves to fly fish, play golf, hunt and scuba dive.

Sabrina Champagne works for SLS, LLC as Senior Incentives and Tax Advisor.

Sabrina has spent the past two decades engaged in various aspects of tax credit consulting. Some of her accomplishments include providing federal and state tax credit advice to many leading Fortune 500 companies yielding millions of dollars in annual savings. She has facilitated numerous negotiated incentive packages to offset costs associated with corporate expansion and training activities. She has also worked with the Ministry in Canada to implement the Targeted Wage Subsidy program for a large US retail corporation. She uses a consultative approach when forming partnerships with clients to capture both negotiated and statutory credits to reduce their effective tax rates.

In her spare time, she can be found volunteering at various community events throughout
Indianapolis and surrounding areas. She finally hung up her skates after playing ice hockey for many years, and now spends hours in her organic garden.

David Gaines, Managing Director, leads the day-to-day operations of the firm’s consulting business and the firm’s commercial and industrial real estate division, Goldstone Realty Partners.

Goldstone Consulting Group provides site selection service to companies that are expanding and searching for new locations to establish operations. Goldstone Consulting Group also provides economic development consulting services to communities.

Prior to founding Goldstone Consulting Group in 2016, Mr. Gaines held leadership roles in two
local and regional economic development agencies dating back to 2007. During that time, he was responsible for the business attraction efforts for the communities he represented as well business retention and expansion programs for those communities.

David is a founding member of the Northeast Missouri Development Partnership, a 14-county regional economic development agency. He also served as the group’s first two-term Chairman of the Board of Directors and currently serves as a member of its Government Relations Committee.

He holds a degree in Business Administration from the Ashford University – Forbes School of
Business and a Chancellor’s Certificate in International Trade from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute.

During his 30-years of business experience, David has held positions from sales and marketing to management and ownership. He has worked in the economic development, financial services, print and broadcast media, real estate and business services industries.

David has authored numerous articles for national publications on matters relating to economic development and business and is a former financial talk show host for a major market radio station. In addition, he has also been a panelist and a moderator many times on topics concerning economic development.

Jeffrey focuses on expanding SRS's capabilities in global portfolio services through key industrial clients with requirements in North and Latin America. Jeffery is a U.S. Armed Forces Veteran and Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 recipient.

Capabilities
-- Americas Portfolio Management in excess of 250 M SF
-- U.S. 150M SF Industrial
-- Mexico 50M SF Industrial
-- Latin America 50M SF Industrial
Assignments ranging from site selection, lease review/renewal, project management, tours on site in any given country.

Professional Experience

-- SRS Industrial, EVP & Managing Principal

-- NAI Horizon, Executive Vice President
-- Cresa, Senior Vice President
-- APL Logistics, Senior Corporate Real Estate Director

Notable Clients

Chicanos Por La Causa, Wesco, Arizona State University, Foot-Print Center, Elite Bags, American Red Cross and 3M

International Clients 

Compu Proveedores, Elite Bags, REYMA, Sigma and PSAP

Education
-- Masters Real Estate Development, Arizona State University Graduated “With Honors”
-- Masters Business Administration, University of Phoenix Graduated “With Honors”
-- Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, Montana State; University Minor in Business Administration

Board Affiliations & Accolades
-- Western Regional Chamber of Commerce
-- U.S. Green Building Council
-- Phoenix Sister Cities
-- Global Ties
-- National Hispanic Contractors Association-AZ
-- Phoenix Sister Cities

Rob O’Brian is founder and principal of O’Brian and Associates, LLC, a consultancy in
economic, workforce and community development. Rob is dedicated to assisting
organizations that help their communities thrive including chambers of commerce,
economic development entities, local government, education, and not-for-profits. He
conducts workforce assessments, business park feasibility studies, economic and
community development planning and strategy development and facilitates
community and board training sessions. Rob has also been a disaster recovery contractor for the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Prior to founding the company in early 2018, O’Brian led Chambers of Commerce in economic development for more than thirty years. As President of the Joplin (MO) Area Chamber of Commerce for more than 20 years, Rob led development of a small business incubator and developed of one of the premier business parks in southwest Missouri. He also developed a seven county, three state regional economic development program to market the broader Joplin Region for new investment as well as programs to build a stronger regional workforce. As part of the marketing efforts, he and his team also participated in international trade events and corporate call programs.

In addition to the above, Rob worked with the City of Joplin and the community college to develop an advanced manufacturing skills training center. He was recognized as Workforce Partner of the Year by the Missouri Community College Association for that effort. He is also a founder and board member of the Joplin Regional Medical School Alliance, an organization that successfully brought a 600-student medical school to the community in 2017. The success of the project led to the development of a new dental school which opened in 2023.

Rob was president of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce when the community was hit by an EF-5 tornado in 2011; the most devastating and deadly tornado in U.S. in more than fifty years. The Chamber’s efforts to bring back more than 85% of the small businesses destroyed or damaged were recognized nationally by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Rob has spoken on disaster recovery and preparation to a number of groups from the local to the national level.

Rob is a Certified Economic Developer as designated by the International Economic Development Council. He is a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organizational Management (IOM). He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Ball State University, Muncie, IN, with a BS in Telecommunications and minor in journalism. Rob is also a Strategic Doing Certified Workshop Leader.

Christine Wong Rambo, CEcD, MBA is a veteran site selection and economic development consultant with more than three decades working with companies and communities. She is a Certified Economic Developer, President, and Founder of Upsize Marketing Strategies, an economic development and site selection consultancy, based in Louisiana, U.S.A.

Christine works with companies to grow their operations from site location to fundraising, incentive advice, and project management. Her clients include Fortune 150 companies such as Lumen Technologies,  manufacturing companies such as Outlaw Ordnance, value-added agricultural and meat processing companies such as Fitch Ranch Artisan Meat, and healthcare systems such as Pioneers Medical Center.

Upsize also works with communities, regions, chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations to become ready for economic development from developing strategic plans, marketing plans, industry cluster analysis, business development and attraction strategies, and community development.

For over a decade, Christine led the marketing and business development efforts of North Louisiana Economic Partnership (NLEP), a regional economic development organization. Under her leadership, NLEP’s lead generation program generated 65 percent of its leads. The business attraction, expansion, and retention strategies successfully recruited 66 economic development projects that generated $1.86 billion in capital investment and 5,267 new direct jobs over ten years. The economic development projects included corporate offices, headquarters, manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and distribution companies. Her efforts to certify and market a shovel-ready industry park in Shreveport, LA led to the recruitment of a $200 million Amazon fulfillment center which will create 1,000 jobs.

Her work earned an Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council for video and multimedia promotion and an ADDY award for website development.

Before entering the economic development profession, Christine was an award-winning anchor and reporter for 12 years.  She earned her BA in Communications from American University and her MBA from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She was named a “Women of Distinction” on a national registry of accomplished women leaders and volunteers with IEDC to support its Certified Economic Developers (CEcD) Program.

Chris Steele is the CEO and President of EBP-US, based in Boston.  His over 30 years of experience in location consulting, site selection, and economic development have resulted in a unique perspective on how the concept of place impacts business and community success around the globe.

Past clients include The Boeing Company, BlueCross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Lenovo, Morgan Stanley, Club Med, Becton Dickinson, the US Transportation Research Board (of the National Science Foundation), Olympus, and Biogen IDEC.  He also frequently advises governments and public sector agencies on business attraction and economic development efforts and has worked with municipalities and regional organizations across the US, Canada, Europe, and South America.

Chris has written on location strategy and real estate topics for Area Development, Business Expansion Journal, Site Selection Online Insider, and the Journal of Corporate Real Estate, served as an editor for Ernst & Young's United States Investment Monitor, and is a frequent presenter at forums around the world.