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In November, Fort Worth City Councilman Leonard Firestone told us about a committee in the works at the municipal level design to cultivate entrepreneurship and innovation.
The City Council formalized its formation at its meeting on the last week of January and met for the first time Tuesday at City Hall.
Firestone, one of the founders of Firestone & Robertson Distillery, which sent to the marketplace the highly successful TX Whiskey, a hit with connoisseurs, will chair the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee. Council colleague Michael Crain will serve as vice chair.
“I think I would characterize it as a very good starting point,” said Firestone, who represents District 7 as City Councilman, of the meeting. “More of a what is the lay of the land and where we need to focus. It’s an enormous topic.”
The 19-member committee was formed at the direction of Mayor Mattie Parker.
Officials at Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week boasted that new companies created 30,000 jobs in Tarrant County in 2019.
Attracting corporate relocation and keeping what is here are important factors to economic development, but entrepreneurial endeavors can be transformative to cities.
The committee’s first meeting was scheduled for Feb. 8 at City Hall. The next will be March 8.
“We don’t want this to be a government think tank, but [find where the city can take action on] programs to really help people and businesses in town,” Firestone said.
The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Committee members
Leonard Firestone, chair
Michael Crain, vice chair
Carlos Flores
Chris Nettles
Bobby Ahdieh
Jonathan Balch
Stephen Condon
Cameron Cushman
Holli Davies
Nancy Galvan
Ian Kinne
Marcus Knight
Ed Kraus
Les Kreis
Tamabala Lee
Daniel Pullin
Andrew Rosell
Kit Ulrich
Jarratt Watkins