Buddy Rizer serves as the Executive Director for economic development in Loudoun County, Virginia, which was named the 2021 Economic Development Organization of the Year by the International Economic Development Council. He leads the agency responsible for encouraging growth and developing relationships with Loudoun’s business community in both the commercial and agricultural-based business sectors. During his tenure, Rizer and his team have attracted more than $65 billion in new commercial investment and more than 60 thousand new jobs. During this time, the growth in the commercial based has helped lower the tax rate in Loudoun by more than 48 cents on the dollar, saving residents thousands of dollars annually on their tax bill.
Mr. Rizer has been named a Tech Titan eight times by Washingtonian Magazine (2017 – 2024), one of the 50 most influential Virginians six times by Virginia Business Magazine (2018 – 2023), a five-time member of Virginia’s Power 500 (2020 – 2024), and three times named to the Washington Business Journal’s Power 100 as one of the most influential businesspeople in Washington, DC (2020, 2022, 2023). In 2024, he was named as one of the 50 most influential people in Northern Virginia by Northern Virginia Magazine.
Mr. Rizer is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), a certified Entrepreneurship Development Professional (EDP), has a master’s in business administration/economics from Longwood University and is a graduate of Virginia Tech's Local Government Management Graduate Program.