Background & experience
Brian Licari is a vice president at ESI and leads economic development, strategic planning, competitive positioning evaluation, and community market assessment engagements for public, private, and nonprofit clients. With more than 20 years of urban planning, real estate, and local government experience, including more than 15 years in consulting, he has a deep understanding of key economic and market indicators. He applies his expertise to data-driven approaches that balance the contextual needs and motivations of stakeholders at different levels of local, regional, state, and national involvement.
Brian has extensive experience managing multidisciplinary project teams with ESI staff as well as partner firms and consulting subject matter experts. He thrives at all levels of communication, including community and stakeholder engagement, client management, training facilitation, staff mentoring, presentation material development, public speaking, and technical writing.
Brian’s direct project experience includes market analysis, economic and fiscal impact analysis, industry cluster analysis, place-based economic development strategies, stakeholder and community engagement, district reinvestment strategies, and entrepreneurial ecosystem assessments. He is adept at applying a wide range of analytics and strategic approaches for helping clients, communities, and stakeholders understand and address complex challenges related to regional development patterns, fiscal solvency, equitable growth, and economic competitiveness.
Brian holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina. To refine his expertise in real estate, he recently completed a commercial real estate certificate program from Cornell University. Brian is actively involved with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) as a member of the Neighborhood Planning and Development Local Product Council and UrbanPlan committee.
