Anna Cardona has been in and around local economic development for years.
She’s worked for the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis & Shelby County, the Greater Memphis Chamber, First Horizon, and several others in the real estate sector.
Now, she’s heading up economic development in Tate County, Mississippi.
Cardona is working with Polished Consulting LLC, a boutique consulting firm based in Bartlett. The reach has even been global: Cardona spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. She has been working with Roquita Coleman-Williams, managing partner at Polished.
“With the support of Roquita and Polished Consulting, I was invited to speak at the Davos Worldwide Conference, which was broadcast into Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum,” Cardona said. “The topic of the panel was Onshoring Renaissance: North Mississippi’s Strategic Edge. We spoke about how North Mississippi is perfectly positioned for companies who are exporting to do that in a financially beneficial way to their companies, and in a way that is rooted in hard work. The work ethic of the people is is really strong in North Mississippi, and so are the natural resources. There are a lot of strategic advantages to being in North Mississippi, and specifically Tate County.”
Cardona has been on since September and is developing a strategic plan to lure companies to the county 30 minutes south of Memphis. She said that the group is particularly targeting agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, and alternative energy, especially hydrogen facilities.
Tate County has a myriad of sites where Cardona is working to place projects. Some, like the Hannaford Site, are hundreds of acres. Some are spec warehouses. To help them reach their potential, Coleman-Williams is helping Cardona build up Tate County.
Coleman-Williams said that is directed at two things in particular: workforce development and livability for young professionals. The two-tiered approach is focused on increasing community engagement.
“In small rural communities, building brand awareness, consensus, and support around economic development really starts with community engagement,” she said.
The goal is to build momentum to help the county move fast and place its residents in new high-quality jobs. It’s also an effort with an eye to sustainability.
“We’re making sure that those young professionals have a space to fellowship and network, but also to build the skills they’re going to need for those businesses that are coming into the market,” Coleman-Williams said. “Anna has been very, very intentional looking at not the five- to 10-year view of economic development and workforce development, but that 30-year view.”
The process involves bringing in all the area leaders and stakeholders to coordinate on the economic development goal. The group had its first in-person meeting on Jan. 27.
“We brought workforce development, public safety, fire, education, county, city representatives all together,” Cardona said. “There’s this real momentum for collaboration happening, which hasn’t happened before.”
Next up, Tate County is holding a gala it hopes to begin hosting annually. It is scheduled to take place Feb. 8 at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
“We would love for the Memphis community to come and celebrate with us,” Cardona said. “We’re going to be celebrating the wins and highlights that we’ve had so far. Bob Hess, who’s a global economic development expert, is going to be our keynote speaker.”
By Stephen MacLeod – Reporter, Memphis Business Journal
Read the story in the Memphis Business Journal here: https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2025/02/07/anna-cardona-tate-county-mississippi-economic.html
