Chris Burnham

The first President of the Development Finance Authority of Summit County (DFA) since 2000, Chris Burnham has successfully guided and financed numerous development and redevelopment projects in greater Akron and Northeast Ohio. Chris has been instrumental in building DFA into one of the most active economic development financing agencies in the State of Ohio. In 2018, DFA was recognized by the Council of Development Finance Agencies as one of the 15 highest performing Development Finance Agencies in the nation. During his tenure at DFA, the Authority has issued $1B in economic development bonds, leveraging over $889M in additional investment. Through the New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) program, the Development Fund of the Western Reserve (DFWR), established in 2011 by the DFA, has allocated $65M federal NMTC plus $11.5M Ohio NMTC, leveraging $55M additional federal and state NMTC allocations, enabling DFA and DFWR to directly or indirectly be associated with the retention and creation of 14,593 jobs, including thousands of construction jobs.  Chris was a lead member of the team that retained the Goodyear Headquarters and Bridgestone Research and Development Center in Akron, along with the 4,000+ local jobs tied to those companies. Under Chris’ leadership The DFA has experienced growth as evidenced by its revenues and expenses in 1999 of $116,216 and $76,722 respectively, to a balance sheet over $107M currently.