Jose Luis Rivera Rivera, Ma, Mba Email and Phone Number

My highly versatile economic and community development management experiences uniquely position me to be a “doer” and a “change maker". I have been able to consistently employ my strategic and data-driven thinking to effectively drive success. I firmly believe I succeed by making others succeed; ultimately that is how success is achieved. My educational background and broad scope of experiences uniquely position me to effectively drive change and get things done.Community Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery/Mitigation Experience:Currently, I work for the CDBG-DR/MIT Program at the Puerto Rico Department of Housing. Puerto Rico has an allocation of roughly $20 Billion in CDBG-DR/MIT funds, the largest Congress has ever assigned to any US jurisdiction. I serve as Deputy Director of the Economic Recovery Programmatic Division which is comprised of 7 Programs and has a budget of roughly $1.4 Billion. Responsible for managing the Small Business Financing (SBF), Re-grow PR Urban-Rural Agriculture (Re-Grow), Tourism and Business Marketing (TBM), and Economic Development Investment Portfolio for Growth – Lifeline Mitigation (IPG-MIT) Program, and all details related to their day-to-day program delivery.Economic Development Experience:Worked at the Orlando Economic Partnership, economic development organization for the Orlando Metro Area. Was responsible for attracting new capital investment and jobs to the region, while fostering local growth and development across the Orlando community. Responsible for data-driven community analysis, Orlando value-proposition development, cost-benefit analysis comparisons among Metros, economic incentives ROI analysis, workforce skill-demand analysis, among others. Was actively engaged in Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E), Business Attraction Strategy, Target Sector Planning, COVID Business Recovery Efforts, Regional Incentive Program and Site Evaluation Program development, among others.