Charisse Bodisch

Senior Vice President, Economic Development
Austin Chamber

Charisse Bodisch will sit as a panelist on our featured panel discussion. As a 30+ year veteran in economic development, Charisse has worked in every aspect of the industry. As the SVP of Economic Development with the Austin Chamber and through the regional economic development initiative Opportunity Austin, she leads the team dedicated to the recruitment of new corporate citizens and the expansion of the local industry base for the five-county Greater Austin, Texas Region. Since Opportunity Austin’s formation in 2004, the organization has contributed to the overall prosperity of the Austin Region that has benefited from 777 corporate relocations, about 1,370 expansion announcements, and over 549,500 new direct/indirect jobs created.

Prior to coming to the Austin Chamber in 2006, she served as CEO/Executive Director of the Allen, TX Economic Development Corporation (AEDC). Under her leadership, the AEDC owned and developed industrial and office parks and facilitated new development projects including industrial, office, urban retail mixed-use and specialty facilities.

Dr. Mark G. Dotzour

Dr. Dotzour will present the economic outlook for investors and business decision-makers, as well as serve on our featured panel discussion.

Dr. Mark G. Dotzour is a real estate economist who served for 18 years as Chief Economist of the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University in College Station. He has given over 1,800 presentations to over 345,000 people and has written over 90 articles for magazines and journals. His research findings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine and Business Week.

His clients include banks, private equity firms, real estate investments trusts, construction firms, engineering companies, wealth managers, private foundations, and commercial and residential brokerage firms. He has also made presentations to local and national trade associations all over America. He makes complex economic issues easily understandable. Mark’s goal is to provide his audience with a “tool kit” of useful information that will help them make good business decisions for their families, their clients and their company.

In 2015, Dotzour stepped down from his position at the Real Estate Center to focus all of his time and effort on analyzing current economic conditions and communicating his analysis to others. He combines academic training in economics, real estate, finance and history to make sense of current economic trends.

After earning his PhD in finance and real estate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987, Dotzour was a tenured professor of real estate and finance at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas for 10 years. Prior to his academic career, he was President of Gleneagles Development, Inc., which was a residential land development firm in Wichita. During this time, he also served as President of Dotzour Inc., Realtors, which was a residential brokerage firm in Wichita.

John Garrett

CEO & Founder
Community Impact

John Garret will moderate our panel discussion. After spending the beginning of his career in the newspaper business at the Houston Chronicle and the Austin Business Journal, John Garrett and his wife Jennnifer launched the first edition of Community Impact Newspaper in 2005 from the game room of their home to residents of Round Rock and Pflugerville.

Today, the award-winning Community Impact Newspaper has more than 200 employees and 35 editions across Texas and is delivered to more than 2.5 million homes. Community Impact’s popular Morning Impact hyperlocal email is delivered to more than 150,000 Texans’ inboxes every weekday.

John has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the nonprofit RecognizeGood for ethics in business and community and has been named Austin’s Best Small Business CEO by the Austin Business Journal.

Glenn Hegar

Texas Comptroller

Glenn Hegar is Texas' chief financial officer — the state's treasurer, check writer, tax collector, procurement officer, and revenue estimator. Hegar will provide the 2023 economic forecast.

Glenn Hegar was elected as Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts in November 2014.

Glenn is a sixth-generation Texan who grew up farming land that has been in his family since the mid-1800s. He’s a 1993 graduate of Texas A&M University and earned his law degree at St. Mary’s University. Glenn has served in the Texas Legislature, where he worked on issues including public education, transportation, tax reform, government transparency, Second Amendment rights, water issues and tort reform.

As comptroller, Glenn is chief finance officer for the world’s ninth-largest economy. He has emerged as a passionate advocate for conservative financial management and government transparency who has focused on creating a more efficient and customer oriented agency. He founded the state’s Transparency Stars program, pushed for smarter ways of investing our rainy day fund to protect it for future generations, and guided the formation of the nation’s first ever state-administered precious metals depository.

Thomas Schuette

Senior Vice President & Investment Grade Credit Research Analyst
PIMCO

Thomas Schuette will sit on our panel. Mr. Schuette is a senior vice president and investment grade credit research analyst for PIMCO Municipals in the Austin office. At our Economic Outlook event, he will present on the featured panel discussion. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2021, he was co-head of the investment research and strategy department at Gurtin Municipal Bond Management, a PIMCO company. Previously, he was a lead state analyst at Moody's Investors Service, where he led the analysis of a broad range of municipal sectors nationwide and participated in developing the firm’s rating methodologies. Prior to this, he served in finance and policy roles within the public sector, as well as in a research role assessing opportunities for public-private partnerships. He has 18 years of investment experience and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from The University of Texas at Austin. He received an undergraduate degree from Truman State University.