James Sly is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the East County Economic Development Council (EDC). Sly is responsible for defining and implementing the East County EDC’s ambitious project portfolio, which cuts across education, industry, workforce, and government. Additionally, Sly leads many of the organization’s strategic partnership and business development efforts, working to make the EDC a locus of economic activity in San Diego.
Sly joined the East County EDC in 2012, initially as a Program Manager tasked with helping the Department of Defense (DoD) and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) fine-tune their procurement systems to make government solicitations more attractive to American manufacturers. After leading the development of a new supply chain software solution, he expanded his attention to include the EDC’s other flagship projects: the East County Small Business Development Center, the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Pipeline, and the “Connectory” SAAS platform.
Prior to joining the East County EDC, Sly worked as a management consultant, servicing startup and mid-size businesses throughout San Diego’s private sector, and as a sought-after workforce expert for the One-Stop Career Center Network and San Diego’s CalWORKS Welfare-to-Work and Refugee Resettlement programs. He has been able to leverage this multifaceted skillset to the EDC’s benefit, coordinating resources from across the spectrum to drive the organization’s mission and support stakeholders throughout East County and the larger San Diego region.