Whitney Hardy is a Memphis based, African-American millennial entrepreneur, economic development thought leader, arts philanthropist, and investor. Whitney applies +10 years entrepreneurship, business, and public accounting experience to solve problems, find opportunities and help businesses and cities grow. She is a regular speaker and host at conferences around the United States, and advises states, cities, foundations and business leaders on economic development strategies, programs, and policies. Whitney is known for her expertise in business strategy and scaling, entrepreneur coaching and mentoring, innovative economic development strategies, creative brand building across numerous industries and city efforts. This includes managing a portfolio of businesses in the sectors of retail, food-based, logistics, service based, maker products, music, film, and more. Her autodidactic fine arts acumen coupled with her business savvy, has made her a powerful voice around strategies for contemporary arts and culture's role in economic development, civic pride, innovation, social justice, and general arts for art sake. She has worked with an array of national arts institutions, universities, foundations, creative business owners, and artists around projects, ideas, exhibitions, and concerts.