Brian Cole - Economic Development Expert

Brian Cole discovered that he had a fascination about Why Some Communities Succeed, Why Some Fail – and What to do About it (the title of his second book) back in his high school days.

This led Brian to pursue a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Willamette University after he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (with a concentration in International Business) at Oregon State University. The highlight of his educational experience was participating in three internships in the community and economic development field.

At the time of Brian’s graduation from Willamette University in 1987, Baker City and Baker County Oregon were looking to hire their first Economic Development Director. Brian was selected and thus began an enriching career in the field of community and economic development.

Brian looks back to the 6½ years in Baker City as 2,000+ days of perfection. The community was hungry for community and economic development, and Brian did not know that there was such a thing as a bad day. Brian wrote the County’s first economic development strategic plan – six strategies – and then spent his days working with a strong cadre of volunteers to bring forth the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill, the Sumpter Dredge State Heritage Area, the Elkhorn View Industrial Park, an agricultural equipment manufacturing company, the rehabilitation of the Baker City historic district, the establishment of the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway (river path system), the Hells Canyon Overlook, and a workforce training center. Brian likes to say that Baker City and Baker County accomplished everything that they put their minds to for over a decade.

In late 1993, Brian was advocating for a friend to be appointed as the Regional Business Development Officer (RBDO) for the Oregon Economic Development Department (OEDD) for five Eastern Oregon counties. By the time Brian’s advocacy was done for his friend, he received the job himself. In that capacity, Brian served the five Eastern Oregon counties, managing business development prospects for the State and the respective communities. Collectively, his fellow RBDOs were managing one of the largest portfolios of development activity in the world, led by the growth of the high-tech sector in the Silicon Forest.

In 1998, inspired by the book Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story, Brian ran and won the position of Chairman of the Baker County Commissioners beginning January 1, 1999. In this capacity, Brian managed all aspects of Baker County government while simultaneously advancing a 28-item agenda of external economic development projects and internal county government management initiatives. While the experience was rewarding, the era of “2,000 days of perfection” had clearly ended leading Brian to explain community dynamics by inventing the Civic Condition Assessment (now Community Sentiment Analysis).

Brian lost his reelection bid in 2002 and opened his first economic development consulting company on January 1, 2003. This would be the first of two consulting practices that would fulfil his yearning to advance community development. The field of economic development has been such a passion that his vocation has been his vacation for decades.

Brian’s economic development service area remained Eastern Oregon until he established Building Communities, Inc. on the last day of 2009 to offer his economic development strategic planning methodology from coast-to-coast. The timing proved to be ideal, as President Obama established his Partnership for Sustainable Communities initiative and Brian completed the grant writing and all the strategic planning for three Regional Plans for Sustainable Development – Arizona, North Dakota, and Arkansas. In total, 54 economic development strategic plans were completed along with three regional plans. Brian may have been responsible for the completion of more economic development plans than anyone else in such a short period of time.

By 2013, Brian had discovered the Former Bennett Freeze Area, and the horrific impact that federal policy had on the lives of the Navajo and Hopi people. Thus began a life-long dedication to not only creating plans to address the lack of infrastructure and impoverished economic conditions, but to implement projects and initiatives that would transform governance and create a sustainable, diversified economy for these Tribes of the desert southwest.

In 2025, Brian began to rediscover the epilog of the first book that he wrote in 2010: Building Communities: 25 Strategies to Advance America. In the epilog of that book, Brian brashly wrote that his vision was to “evangelize the world with his economic development strategic planning methodology.” This led Brian to study the efficacy of the efforts by the United Nations, the African Union, bilateral organizations, and multilateral organizations that were serving the developing world. There was a broad acknowledgment by such organizations that their efforts were falling short, largely based upon the lack of an objective, grassroots-based effort. Knowing that these were two of the strong suits of the Building Communities Methodology, Brian is now set on a course to conduct that “evangelization.”

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