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Michael R. Press

Executive Partner, Business Incentives Advisory, Government Relations and Location Analysis

Mike has more than 25 years of experience in economic development and tax incentives, having served in both government and non-government consulting roles. Mike also serves as President and Executive Director of M. R. Press Consulting, LLC, a firm devoted to advising corporate clients on maximizing the value of government-sponsored financial incentives granted in return for their job creation or capital investments. He built and led the world's leading Business Incentives advisory practice for eight years while serving as Tax Partner at Ernst & Young. Mike has supervised incentives advisory engagements for Fortune 100 Companies in the aerospace, automotive, consumer products, financial services, distribution, telecommunications, energy, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage production and packaging industries. He has supervised incentives projects in key states including: NY, NJ, CT, PA, TX, CA, OK, NC, SC, FL, GA, OH, MA, TN, MI, IL, and LA. His skill sets are frequently relied upon to support the Government Relations, Economic Impact and Location Analysis functions of capital investment planning and implementation.

Prior to his current roles, Mike served in government as Assistant Director of Tax Studies, Senate Finance Committee, New York State Senate (Majority); Chief Economist and Deputy Commissioner for Policy in the New York City Office of Business Development; and Chairman of the Enterprise Zone Administrative Boards of four Enterprise (EDZ's) in New York City. He created new and redesigned existing key economic development programs for New York City and New York State including; REAP (Relocation and Employee Assistance Program), ECSP (Energy Cost Savings Program), ICIP (Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program) and Tax Increment Financing.

Most recently, Mike organized and hosted the first comprehensive private sector Business Incentives Symposium in the United States in 2009 and authored "Incentives in a Down Economy", Journal of Multi-State Taxation, 2008 . Mike is a member of the Practitioner Connection of the Council on State Taxation (COST); the Editorial Advisory Board, of Tax Incentives Alert; and a member of the Editorial Board, Incentives Section, of the Journal of Multi-StateTaxation.

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