Our mission is to support our clients in maximizing the ROI for their Capital, Real Estate, and Human Resources investments.

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Michael R. Press

President

Professional Experience:

  • More than 25 years of experience in economic development and tax incentives, having served in both government and non-government consulting roles including:

  • Built and led the world's leading Business Incentives advisory practice while serving as Tax Partner at Ernst & Young.

  • Supervised incentives advisory engagements for Fortune 100 Companies in the aerospace, automotive, consumer products, financial services, telecommunications, energy, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage production and packaging industries.

  • Assistant Director of Tax Studies, Senate Finance Committee, New York State Senate (Majority);

  • Chief Economist and Commissioner (Acting) of the New York City Office of Business Development.

  • Chairman of the Enterprise Zone Administrative Boards of four Enterprise (EDZ's) in New York City.

Engagement highlights include:

  • Led the negotiating team that brought the Boeing Company's world headquarters from Seattle to Chicago (while considering Dallas and Denver).

  • Led the site selection and negotiating team in support of the largest industrial project of 2015 in Alabama.

  • Secured the benefits package sufficient to induce a 3,000-contingent Citigroup campus to relocate to New Jersey.

  • Secured first-of-its-kind incentive in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida and New York.

  • Created new and redesigned existing key economic development programs for New York City and New York State including; REAP (Relocation and Employee Assistance Program), ECSP (Energy Cost Savings Program), ICIP (Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program) and Tax Increment Financing.

  • Organized and hosted the first comprehensive private sector Business Incentives Symposium in the United States.

Education & Certifications:

  • M.S. - SUNY Albany, Economics

  • B.S. - SUNY Albany, Economics, Mathematics

Professional Associations & Affiliations:

  • Industrial Asset Management Council, Member

  • Journal of MultiState Taxation and Incentives, Editorial Board Member

 

Steve Weitzner

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Steve Weitzner has more than 30 years of experience in economic impact analysis, international location analysis and site selection, and economic development consulting. Steve worked for Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young, helping both companies to establish and grow international and domestic site selection and incentives advisory service lines. He was also the founder and president of Silverlode Consulting, Inc., which is now owned and operated by GBX Group LLC based in Cleveland, OH.

 

While President of Silverlode for nearly 20 years, Steve developed the methodology for completion of comprehensive economic impact analyses of complex organizations and major proposed real estate developments. He was responsible for completing impact studies for entities such as Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Baystate Health, Nemours, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), the Ohio Department of Transportation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and many others.  

 

Steve is one of the most experienced economic development and site selection consultants in the US and has completed nearly 1,000 projects and analyses over the last three decades. He has worked on projects in 42 US states and in more than 25 countries. Since selling Silverlode in 2018, Steve works independently on a select number of projects each year and is an Adjunct Faculty member and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Case Western Reserve University. He lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio with his wife and his dog, and is an avid squash player, skier, and French hornist.

 

Micah J. Press 

Senior Researcher

Micah Press is a policy, program and political researcher whose work spans environmental restoration, grassroots advocacy, human rights analysis, economic development and the study of public opinion and cultural dynamics. Before joining SCOUT Economics, Micah worked on large-scale environmental restoration and community-engagement projects, helping organizations build coalitions, mobilize local stakeholders, and communicate complex policy issues in clear, actionable terms.

Micah previously conducted human rights research for the United Nations by contributing to updates of the CIRI Human Rights Data Project, with a particular focus on torture, political imprisonment, and violations of physical integrity rights. This work required cross-national comparative analysis, rigorous methodological discipline, and careful handling of politically sensitive information.

Most recently, Micah completed a master’s thesis examinin g how political polarization and “post-truth” discourse manifest in online cultural spaces, using advanced qualitative coding and computational text-analysis tools to map emerging trends in public sentiment. His broader research interests include political communication, digital discourse, interpersonal polarization, and the relationship between culture and governance.

At SCOUT Economics, Micah supports research, analysis, dataroom management and team coordination across environmental, economic development, and public policy engagements. He brings a strong foundation in data synthesis, stakeholder communication, and narrative-driven analysis to help clients understand the social and political dynamics shaping their business environment.

Micah holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Connecticut. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he works as a Risk Intelligence Analyst and spends his free time hiking, cooking, and critiquing film.