CapCon 2022 Program FLIPPING BOOK

Chris Miller Board Chair, National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3)

Chris Miller is chair and one of the founding board members of the National Coalition for Community Capital, a 501c3. NC3 came to fruition in 2016 when a number of folks who had been involved in local or regional community capital work across the country came together to share stories and solutions. Their challenge was to significantly increase local investment, and entrepreneur support, and to create a more democratic economy.

Chris has been working on economic and entrepreneur development in Adrian, Michigan for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles, including as an appointed and elected city official, and as the city’s economic developer for 11 years. During that time, in addition to securing millions of grant dollars and matching private investments, he also developed a local investor group and community business plan competition, and worked with local schools to implement entrepreneurship education. While working his day job in Adrian, he also introduced and championed Michigan’s investment crowdfunding law, spoke across the state and nation on local investment and, with his fellow board members, brought NC3’s national conference to Detroit in 2019. Over the past decade, Chris worked on a number of donation and investment crowdfunding campaigns with communities and entrepreneurs on individual projects. He recently completed work on a project with his wife and her business partners creating a downtown café, coffee, and candy shop in a 170 year old building in Adrian. The project used an investment crowdfunding raised as part of their capital stack, where 45 investors from seven states made investments totaling $120,000. Chris served as a 2021 Innovation Fellow for the Michigan State University EDA Center for Regional Economic Innovation, a federally funded program that is focused on innovation in local/regional/national economies. The fellowship focus was on the expansion and use of local capital to fund projects, build local wealth and economic vitality, and build stronger communities. Chris also serves as Special Projects Consultant to PlaneWave Instruments, global leader in the design and manufacture of high-tech research telescopes at their world headquarters in Adrian, Michigan.

Ciaran O’Connor Chief Marketing Officer, Braver Angels

Ciaran O’Connor is the chief marketing officer for Braver Angels. He is a digital and communications strategist who previously served as a staffer on the Obama 2012 and Clinton 2016 presidential campaigns. O’Connor graduated from Duke University in 2013 with a degree in public policy.

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Partnerships and Policy: Fueling a Community Revival