Janet Christy has spent the majority of her professional career in marketing, sales and public relations positions. She has also worked on several economic development and technology initiatives in the Southeast.
In 2003 Ms. Christy formed Leverage & Development, LLC, a consulting firm focused on helping Small and Woman/Minority Owned businesses and government/education entities. The firm has several service offerings that assist businesses and governments in evaluating their assets and then developing plans to improve them and/or use them to accomplish specific goals. Click here for more details.
Since early 2000, Ms. Christy has aided several East Coast municipalities and counties determine strategies and develop plans for improving the entrepreneurial culture and services as part of their Economic Development efforts. She has helped obtain grant funding, establish resource centers and incubators, develop small, woman/minority owned businesses and conduct needs assessment research.
Ms. Christy also conducts seminars for Small and Woman/Minority Owned Businesses. These workshops provide attendees with practical instruction, resources and experience-based advice. Details are available on the Training page of this website.
Ms. Christy has worked on both sides of the procurement process. Her experience includes both preparing RFPs (Request for Proposal) and RFIs (Request for Information) and responding to them. She currently works as a consultant for Small and Woman/Minority Owned Businesses to aid them in responding to RFPs. She also assists government and education entities in the development of RFPs and the evaluation of responses.
She has aided several government and education entities successfully apply for grants related to technology use and deployment and entrepreneur development and support. She continues to work with clients to identify and apply for grant and funding opportunities.
Janet spent 25 years in telecommunications. At BellSouth, where Ms. Christy worked for seventeen years, she led a team that spearheaded a statewide effort in 1996 to provide Internet access for all K-12 schools in South Carolina. As part of this effort she served on a Governor’s Task Force. She also worked with many counties and municipalities in South Carolina to design and implement countywide communications and 911 systems in the 1980s and 1990s. In late 1999, Ms. Christy, along with several partners, formulated, raised angel and bank financing, and implemented the business plan for a telecommunications company specializing in back-office and consulting services for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Virtual ISPs and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs). The group launched the telecommunications company and within less than a year sold the ISP portion to a publicly traded company. Ms. Christy served as Executive Vice President for Sales, Marketing and Customer Service.
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