WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – The City of Wilmington has hired Louis Starks as its business and economic development manager, a role focused on strengthening the city\u2019s business ecosystem, supporting entrepreneurship, and advancing strategic economic growth.<\/p>\n
Starks brings more than 20 years of experience in economic development, urban planning, housing finance, and public policy. He most recently led business retention and expansion efforts in Oakland County, Michigan, where his teams supported billions of dollars in investment and helped create thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n
In Wilmington, he will work to connect businesses with City procurement opportunities, cultivate public-private partnerships, and lead initiatives aimed at long-term economic vitality.<\/p>\n
\u201cLouis has built his career around helping individuals, organizations, and communities reach their full potential,\u201d said City Manager Becky Hawke. \u201cHe understands that a strong economy creates opportunities for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starks holds a Juris Doctor and a Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Iowa and a bachelor\u2019s degree from Duke University. He is also a Certified Economic Development Professional.<\/p>\n
He begins his new role Monday, July 27.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WECT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – The City of Wilmington has hired Louis Starks as its business and economic development…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":956222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,384697,384698,718,136407,12613,384692,384700,607,307319,45554,384693,384694,384696,50,615,384699,384702,384701,384695,67,132,68,41817,384691],"class_list":["post-956221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-business-and-economic-development-manager","tag-city-manager-becky-hawke","tag-community","tag-community-organizations","tag-economic-development","tag-economic-development-manager","tag-educational-institution","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-housing-finance","tag-local-businesses","tag-louis-starks","tag-louis-starks-as-business","tag-new-business-and-economic-development-manager","tag-news","tag-planning","tag-starks-will-work-with-residents","tag-strategic-growth","tag-supporting-entrepreneurship","tag-the-city-of-wilmington","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wect","tag-wilmington-hires-louis-starks-as-business"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}