Piedmont Strategies
Owen Washburn is Founder and Principal of Piedmont Strategies. For more than 15 years, he has designed and led strategies that expand economic opportunity and enable more people to contribute to and benefit from growth. He works independently and collaborates with experts and practitioners at the forefront of inclusive economic and workforce development and the clean energy transition across the United States.
Approach
Advance inclusive growth by helping localities, regions, and states understand the impact of disruptive forces—from technology and climate to trade and demographics—on their industries and communities, and develop and leverage innovation, talent, and infrastructure assets to respond to challenges and emerging opportunities.
Build shared vision and priorities to move from ambition to measurable results by connecting leaders across sectors at the local, regional, and state scale, and building the capabilities and collaboration required to move quickly and sustain progress over time.
Shape policy and practice across the country by identifying, documenting, and scaling what works, tailoring best practices to distinctive local contexts, and facilitating peer learning among practitioners and policymakers.
Featured Work
Seawall: Building a Resilient Seattle Economy
Seattle’s decade of tech-driven growth produced the outcomes most regions aspire to, but left its economy and fiscal base precariously dependent on a few large tech firms. This rigorous assessment of Seattle’s business climate and competitive position offers a framework for fostering the economy a place has while investing in what comes next, pairing retention of mobile firms and talent with the reconfiguration of existing assets into new growth, and the institutions required to do both.
Beyond ‘Clean’ Versus ‘Cheap’: The Energy and Growth Strategy States and Regions Are Missing
Electricity has overtaken talent as the binding constraint on regional economic growth, and states across the political spectrum are responding incoherently. This paper argues the real barrier is governance, not technology, and identifies three institutional capacities—dedicated deployment, competitive market structures, and aligned energy-economic strategy—leading states are using to escape the clean-versus-cheap trap.
Illinois Energy Plan: A 5GW by 2035 Strategy
Illinois faces an energy capacity shortfall just as its quantum computing and climate ambitions are rising. This plan charts nine strategies to expand clean generation, manage demand, and modernize grid institutions—reframing energy as an engine of innovation.
Foundations of Regional Economic Transformation
Philanthropy played a critical role in reshaping how places pursue growth during a period of large-scale federal investment. This analysis traces how civic networks and flexible capital helped communities build muscle for long-term transformation.
Seattle Green Economy: Vision and Asset Analysis
Seattle is primed for a chapter that pairs climate ambition with shared prosperity. This report maps how the city can convert its clean-energy, tech, and manufacturing strengths into inclusive green-industry growth across seven pathways.