Dr. Wallace Walrod
Chief Economic Advisor
Dr. Walrod is in charge of research at Orange County Business Council. Dr. Walrod has led strategic projects with organizations including Toshiba America Information Systems, Hitachi Chemical, Merrill Lynch, The Irvine Company, First American Corporation, Citizens Business Bank, Bank of America, Los Angeles Business Council, the California Emerging Technology Fund, Wexford Capital, Next 10, Orange County Community Foundation, California Center for Regional Leadership, Pacificare Health Systems, Pacific Life Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, Deloitte & Touche, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Orange County Transportation Authority, Municipal Water District of Orange County, Viewpoint Learning, and Pacific Gas & Electric.
Dr. Walrod is also the Founding President of the Center for a New Orange County, which plays a key role in shaping Orange County’s economic future by leading a targeted countywide effort to design, plan, and fund an integrated, cost effective state-of-the-art infrastructure system. His work includes designing innovative program, strategy, and policy solutions for private industry, government, and private foundations, including the Orange County Community Indicators, Workforce Housing Scorecard, Workforce Housing Toolkit, Public Officials 101, and Workforce Assessment projects. He is currently on the Board of the California Institute of Nursing and Health Care, the Advisory Boards of the Orange County Executive Survey, Orange County Annual Survey, and Department of Planning, Policy, and Design, UC Irvine; and the Orange County Health Needs Assessment. Additionally, he serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the State of California’s Economic Strategy Panel. He was formerly a director of Wescom, a $2.5 billion financial institution.
Dr. Walrod graduated with a Ph.D. from UC Irvine. His dissertation studied successful strategic management practices in high-tech firms, including advanced electronics and biotechnology. He has published three papers co-authored with Luis Suarez-Villa in Disasters, Journal of International Biotechnology, and Urban Studies, the latter which won the 1997 Donald Robertson Memorial Prize. He is quoted frequently in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Entrepreneur, and other publications on economic matters.