DOUG HENTON • President and Co-Founder
Doug Henton has more than 30 years of experience in innovation and economic development at the national, regional, state, and local levels. Doug is nationally recognized for his work in bringing industry, government, education, research, and community leaders together around specific collaborative projects to improve regional competitiveness.
Doug is a consultant to the California Economic Strategy Panel, California’s state economic strategy process linked to innovation, industry clusters, and regions. He has worked extensively in California to help develop regional economic and innovation strategies for Silicon Valley, Sonoma, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, San Diego, the Central Valley, and others. He was primary consultant to the Fresno’s Regional Jobs Initiative, which used the clusters of opportunity methodology to identifying promising areas for development. Doug has also consulted with the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, advising on economic development strategies. He has worked with the Great Valley Center on identifying promising areas for economic development, including renewable energy. In addition, Doug is working with Next Ten to develop the inaugural California Green Innovation Index.
He has also been consultant to several other state and regional agencies and organizations, including the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Chicago Metropolis 2020, the Potomac Conference, and Arizona Partnership for a New Economy. He has assisted the Oregon with its current strategy for economic development, and has advised governors in New York, Ohio, Washington, and others on their economic and workforce policies.
Doug holds a bachelor's degree in political science and economics from Yale University and a master of public policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
JOHN MELVILLE • Director and Co-Founder
John Melville is Director and Co-Founder of Collaborative Economics, Mountain View, California and an advisor to civic leaders nationwide. Over the past 20 years, John and his partners have worked with public and private leaders in over 40 communities across the U.S. and abroad, helping them launch concrete, collaborative initiatives to improve regional innovation, economic development, and quality of life.
He has been a consultant to the California Economic Strategy Panel, California’s state economic strategy process linked to industry clusters and regions, and the State Workforce Investment Board. He was primary author of the Clusters of Opportunity Users Guide, and designer of the Clusters of Opportunity Training Sessions.
John has worked extensively in California to help develop regional innovation and economic strategies for Silicon Valley, Sonoma, Sacramento, Tri-Valley, Santa Barbara, San Diego, the Central Valley, and others. He was primary consultant to the Humboldt County Workforce Investment Board, which used the clusters of opportunity methodology to identifying promising areas for development. He has worked with the Great Valley Center on research projects focusing on the economic futures of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley regions, renewable energy as an economic and environmental opportunity for the Valley, and health services as an economic priority and source of jobs with career potential. In addition, he is working with Next Ten to develop the inaugural California Green Innovation Index.
John co-founded Collaborative Economics in July 1993 after a decade as a senior policy analyst with SRI International’s Center for Economic Competitiveness. At SRI, John directed and worked on projects in many regions, including Austin, Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California; as well as internationally, including projects on the economic future of Hong Kong, an assessment of university programs and policies across Europe to encourage in regional innovation for the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and industry cluster development in Indonesia.
He holds an A.B. with honors in political science from Stanford University.
Collaborative Economics currently has a core staff of six and an extensive network of partners representing a broad array of expertise.
TRACEY GROSE • Program and Research Manager
Tracey Grose has in-depth analytical experience in the study of regional development issues with a focus on the global economy and the green economy in California and beyond. Since joining Collaborative Economics in 2006, Tracey has designed and led innovative analytical studies and provided training to government and education officials as well as business people on regional economic analysis methods.
With years of study of regional innovation assets, Tracey has a particular interest in examining not only how regions (or countries) compare, but in how they are linked in the world’s innovation networks. Tracey has developed new methods for tracking the global integration of innovative regions at the sub-national level. These new metrics help shed light on the extent of global collaboration in research and business among regions in the world as reported in the 2007 Index of Silicon Valley and in other regional work in California. In international work, Tracey recently contributed to a regional innovation study for Île de France (greater Paris) and is currently developing analytical tools for the French region of Languedoc-Roussillon. In addition to many years spent in Germany, Tracey has carried out informal study of public innovation efforts in Bavaria.
Exploring the characteristics of the growing green economy, Tracey is leading the development of taxonomy of the “green industries” and of a database of current firms with business activities concentrated in the provision of goods or services aimed at reducing or reversing environmental impacts. This initial work has been published in the 2008 California Green Innovation Index, the 2008 Index of Silicon Valley, and in the “Clean Technology and the Green Economy” report for the California Regional Economies Project.
In other work, Tracey was the primary author of “California’s Food Chain” reports for the California Regional Economies Project. Tracey recently lead a study tracking the employment histories of Silicon Valley tech workers in follow-on work to a study she co-author prior to joining Collaborative Economics. Other workforce analyses include tracking the career paths of Certified Nurse Assistants and the compensation patterns of restaurant workers.
Tracey has a Masters degree in Political Science with minors in Economics and Sociology from the JWG-University in Frankfurt, Germany. Her Masters thesis examined the bi-polar labor market in Silicon Valley during the economic expansion.
Tracey is fluent in German and has a basic proficiency in French.