President & Chief Executive Officer, CALED
Executive Director, CA Academy For Economic Development

Gurbax Sahota is an experienced association professional who believes in the importance and need to collaborate and create meaningful partnerships in order to accomplish the goal of creating healthy, wealthy communities. She turns this belief into action by bringing together and leading multiple organizations aligned with the goal of helping businesses thrive in California. Gurbax holds senior positions with CALED, the California Academy for Economic Development, and the California Enterprise Development Authority. Gurbax is using her commitment to thoughtful leadership, knowledge of organizational studies, and her communications background to deliver on the missions of these organizations, to ensure their operations are thriving and sustainable, and to build a high-performance team at CALED.

As President & CEO of CALED, she is focused on creating strategic partnerships to promote the value of economic development and create a stronger voice for economic developers at the state and local level. Additionally, having raised funds and created sustainable financial practices for all three organizations, she has laid a strong foundation for CALED so we can continue to provide services and benefits to economic developers across the state.

Having worked her way up through CALED, Gurbax has either worked on, created, or had a significant role in most of our successes over the past sixteen plus years. Some of her direct achievements include:

• Invigorated the California Academy for Economic Development (The Academy) from its minimal role a pass-through funding organization to a vibrant non-profit that has an active mission to support education, research and innovation in economic development and a budget to deliver on the goals approved by the Academy’s Board of Regents.
• Fostered the growth of the California Enterprise Development Authority (CEDA) by building and maintaining relationships with strategic business partners, as well as investing in the right support team to take advantage of new business opportunities as they become available, such as the development of CEDA’s Commercial PACE program.
• Originated and implemented the creation of meaningful publications to support economic development in California, including:
  • Growing Thriving Rural Economic Development Corporations
  • Primer on California’s New Tax Increment Financing Tools
  • California Rural Infrastructure Financing Guide
• Led the development & launch of a California-specific Economic Development Certification – the Accredited California Economic Developer Certification (ACE)
• Developed & identified funding for the Academy’s Memorial Scholarship Fund program.
• Brokered a partnership to create and share an economic development focused quarterly California economic snapshot
• Revived CALED’s advocacy role through the adoption of a board Legislative Action Policy, creation of a Legislative Action Committee, and by contracting with a knowledgeable advocacy partner to create a strategic and effective approach that has led to multiple legislative successes since she was named CALED’s CEO.

Gurbax’s ability to build relationships has put CALED at the table to ensure California’s economic developers voice a role at the federal, state and local levels. She is happy to be part of the CALED team and a member of California’s economic development network.