Telly Tucker joined IALR as the first President on May 31, 2022. In this role, he provides high-level, strategic leadership as IALR continues its mission to catalyze regional economic transformation. Under Tucker’s stewardship, IALR continues to demonstrate success in economic development, workforce development, applied research, advanced learning and conferencing services. Prior to taking over the helm of leadership at IALR, he served as Director of Arlington Economic Development, where he led a team that successfully landed companies like Boeing’s Global Headquarters and Microsoft while continuing to build on the momentum of Amazon HQ2. Prior to that role, Tucker served five years as the Director of Economic Development for the City of Danville, where he experienced much success helping to revive the Southern Virginia economy with major economic development announcements like AeroFarms and Morgan Olson. Before holding other various economic development and leadership roles, Tucker started out working as an educator for Lynchburg City Schools.
Tucker holds current board appointments on the IALR Foundation, the Dan River Business Development Center, Future of the Piedmont Foundation, Danville Area Development Foundation, Danville Industrial Development and has served on various other boards in the past, including the Leadership Center for Excellence Board of Regents and George Mason University President’s Innovation Advisory Council. He has received the prestigious Certified Economic Development (CEcD) designation granted by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in Washington, D.C., and has been named to the Virginia 500 most powerful and influential leaders in business, government, politics and education for two consecutive years. Tucker is an accomplished pianist, a Lynchburg native and obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration in international business and Spanish from James Madison University.
