About the Founder

Chris Gibbons, founder of the National Center for Economic Gardening (NCEG), is recognized as the creator of the Economic Gardening® movement in the United States.

Serving as NCEG’s visionary leader since 2008, Chris developed and implemented the original entrepreneurship-led economic development strategy in Littleton, Colorado, where he served as Director of Business/Industry Affairs. The innovative approach set a national standard for fostering local, stage 2 business growth and job creation as a viable strategy in the economic development portfolio.

Chris’s work has helped transform the landscape of economic development, shifting the focus of communities nationwide toward nurturing local businesses poised for significant expansion. With more than five decades of experience in city planning, community development, and business strategy, he has published extensively on Economic Gardening and received recognition from the International Economic Development Council, and Inc Magazine among others.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma with an advanced degree in regional and city planning, Chris is internationally regarded as an expert in entrepreneurship and local economic strategy. Today, through the NCEG, he continues to champion evidence-based, entrepreneurship-led economic development strategies that empower communities to cultivate their own economic prosperity.

Connect on LinkedIn

The signature difference of Economic Gardening is an understanding:

of the role of local companies in creating jobs
of the role of stage 2 growth companies in driving local economies
that commoditization causes poverty and innovation is the source of new wealth
that temperament plays a role in company success
that sales probabilities increase in volatile environments
that there are common root issues behind many of the constraints on company growth

Chris Gibbons lives in Evergreen, Colorado at the foot of Mount Blue Sky.