By Megan Sayles
AFRO Staff Writer
msayles@afro.com
The Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) has a new senior leadership team after leading a national search, which attracted hundreds of candidates from across the country. Among the appointments are Jeremy Watson, senior vice president and chief real estate officer, and Roy Broderick Jr., senior vice president and chief business development officer.
The new executive team is a part of BDC’s broader effort to scale its functions, footprint and impact under Otis Rolley, who became CEO of the organization last June. In this next chapter, the leaders are being tasked with helping to reimagine BDC’s approach to economic development.
“There’s a little bit of, ‘Let us reintroduce ourselves,’ that’s going on here locally. Across the leadership team, we’ve gotten to dive in and connect with folks. There’s certainly been an interest in seeing BDC on the scene but also some unfamiliarity with what we do and the products and services we offer,” said Watson. “One of the focuses for these first 90 days is a reintroduction to the city, but also, parallel to that, is BDC being a listening tool.”
A quasi-public nonprofit, BDC is Baltimore’s economic development agency. The organization leads the Baltimore Business Assistance and Support for Equity (BASE) Network, the Emerging Technology Center and Made In Baltimore. It also oversees the city’s five-year comprehensive economic development strategy known as, “Baltimore Together.”
In his new role, Watson said his focus centers on reconciling growth with stability, ensuring real estate development can advance without displacing long-standing residents.
“In my real estate lens, that means not just working and focusing on things downtown, but a large focus on what we’re doing in our neighborhoods,” said Watson. “That also means not just commercial real estate but also home ownership.”
Watson said part of his responsibility is determining strategies for transitioning more households from renting to home ownership, which includes ensuring they have access to wealth-building opportunities.
After 15 years of leading development and capital investment projects in the public and private sectors, he said he views real estate development as a component of economic development that can increase quality of life and improve residents and businesses’ perceptions of a city.
“One of the things that’s always interested me about this city is the proliferation of neighborhoods with different flavors and cultures,” said Watson. “I think we have an opportunity to tell great stories about that not only through the businesses that Roy works with, but particularly in my lane, through reimagining neighborhoods and corridors. That takes on the ground work with people that live there and see it every day.”
(Photo courtesy of Baltimore Development Corporation)
As chief business development officer, Broderick is leveraging his expertise in brand strategy, consumer behavior and global market development to reshape how Baltimore is positioned as a place to invest, build and grow.
He said his approach is rooted in understanding how people interact with businesses and local institutions.
“What I know more than anything is consumers. I use that as my baseline when I approach the work— from a travel and tourism, creative industry and manufacturing standpoint,” said Broderick. “It all comes to a head for me because what I know to be true is that no business owner starts a small business and wants to stay small. I use that as my North Star when we think about economic development.”
Broderick stressed that his role will focus on blending business attraction, brand narrative and inclusive growth into a unified strategy that drives long-term business development.
“We know cities that win in the next decade will be the ones that are connecting capital, culture and community with discipline,” said Broderick.
Equity, both leaders said, is central to BDC’s work and how it creates opportunities across the city.
Both Broderick and Watson affirmed BDC’s commitment to advancing the growth and prosperity of the city’s Black businesses and neighborhoods in particular. Given 60 percent of Baltimore’s population is African American, Broderick said BDC’s programming and their impacts must reflect that reality.
“Know that every action and every step we will take will have rationale that is measurable and really does have direct benefits for the communities we serve,” said Broderick. “We would not be doing our job should the majority of these benefits not be for Black people.”
In the coming months, BDC will continue filling out its leadership team, including selecting a chief economic development officer. Other new members on the senior executive team include Maggie McDonough, senior vice president and chief innovation officer, and De’Von Douglass, senior vice president and chief strategy officer.
