Q&A: Burke Resident Jerry Gordon, Virginia Business Person of the Year

Virginia Business magazine recently named Burke resident Jerry Gordon its 2010 Virginia Business Person of the Year.

Gordon has been with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA), of which he is currently the president and CEO, since 1983. Gordon is also a longtime Burke Centre resident. Under his leadership, FCEDA was named as one of the Top Ten Economic Development organizations in North America by Site Selection magazine. Fairfax County was called "one of the great economic success stories of our time" by Time magazine in 2007.

Burke Patch: Were you surprised to be named the Virginia Business Person of the year?

Jerry Gordon: Absolutely, I was surprised. I'm not even really in a business. [The prize] is more of a recognition for what people in local government can do to help people in the business community. I was stunned.

Burke Patch: What do you think you did to gain the recognition?

Gordon: The recognition is of Fairfax County and what it's accomplished in terms of not only attracting companies in the last few years but also in terms of creating a community of assets that are attractive to the business community- Fairfax County has become what the business community wants in terms of location. From my perspective, I think it was more of a recognition of Fairfax.

Burke Patch: How has Fairfax County changed since you started working at the EDA?

Gordon: Oh my. We've probably tripled the number of jobs in the county. We have probably quintupled the amount of office space in Fairfax county, which was important because office users contribute to the tax base and help the Board of Supervisors pay for services without residents having to pay for that. The county has grown and provided more and more public services to an ever increasingly diverse community- in fact while lowering the tax rate.

Burke Patch: You mentioned diversity. I see that you've also been recognized by the Mid-Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as the 2010 Economic Development Professional of the year for your efforts to diversify the county's business community and economy. Can you talk a little about that?

Gordon: We set out almost 20 years ago to take advantage of the large minority and women owned businesses in the county. We've been very successful. We knew that this was a growing market niche and that we were the kind of community that would embrace that diversity—not just accept it, but embrace it. The result has been that, if you look at any list of minority-owned fastest-growing or greatest-revenue businesses, Fairfax county has a disproportionally large sample. Of the top 100 African-American owned businesses in the country, we had six. Of the 50 fastest growing woman-owned businesses in North America, we had four- that's eight percent.

Burke Patch: How many hours a week do you work?

Gordon: [Combining work with community activity efforts], somewhere betwen 60 and 80 hours in the average week.

Burke Patch: What's your favorite part of the job?

Gordon: Working with my staff. We operate the organization through what we call a senior staff- there are nine people in that group other than myself. The average tenure in that group is 17 years. After a time, they become your family, because I see them every day. That's the best part: working with such an extraordinary team of professionals.

Burke Patch: I see that you sometimes teach as well. What do you enjoy about that? [Gordon has taught at George Mason University, Catholic University, University of Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth University.]

Gordon: I'm sure that the universities that I teach at right now thought I would be imparting more knowledge to the students than the other way, but the truth is I've learned so much from them—their different backgrounds and perspectives. The exchange between students teaches me so much.

Burke Patch: If you could ask three people to dinner—anyone alive or dead—who would you ask?

Gordon: Mark Twain, Walter Cronkite and Winston Churchill. I love everything Mark Twain ever wrote. I grew up watching Walter Cronkite on this program he did once a week called the Twentieth Century. Churchill because he held together an entire nation in the darkest times of their history against all odds.

Burke Patch: What was your first job?

Gordon: I spent 18 months with the United States Department of Labor right out of college from August of 1972 to February of 1974. During that time there were three presidential administrations—Nixon, Nixon, and Ford—and five vice presidential administrations including two where we had no one- and three secretaries of labor. All in 18 months. No one knew what was going on from one minute to the next, but it was interesting.

Burke Patch: What do you like about Burke? Why did you move here?

Gordon: We moved to Burke 33 years ago. It was just getting developed. I think at the time we were the 32nd family to move into Burke Centre—we may be some of the oldest residents. Everybody that was moving in was starting families- we all grew together. it was a lot of fun.

Burke Patch: Do you have any favorite sport teams?

Gordon: I'm a Yankees fan and I'm a Wizards fan in basketball. A lifelong Yankee fan. My oldest son and I have 14 games that we go to in the Wizards season- so we're huge fans.

Dickson: When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Gordon: Shortstop for the Yankees. There was only one thing that kept me from that—just one little thing. I had no talent. No skill. Other than that I could have done it.