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Phone: 662.823.IDEA (4332)
Fax: 662.823.RCFI (7234)
Mobile: 662.610.3543
Vice President Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development
Community Development Foundation/Renasant Center for IDEAs
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Wayne Averett is the Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development for the Community Development Foundation and the Renasant Center for IDEAs (Innovation, Development, Entrepreneurship in Action), the Tupelo/Lee County Regional Business Incubator in Tupelo, Mississippi. Wayne began his work at CDF on May 31, 2005, after spending nearly eight years with the Three Rivers Planning and Development District, a regional planning agency covering eight counties in Northeast Mississippi.
While at Three Rivers, he assembled the financing package for the construction of the Renasant Center for IDEAs, whose $4 million construction cost required the coordination of funding from 11 different grant and loan programs from eight different federal, state, and local entities.
He is currently a member of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) and the Tupelo Downtown Main Street Association. Wayne has helped develop and grow the Mississippi Angel Network in Northeast Mississippi by recruiting accredited investors and helping establish mentoring relationships for area entrepreneurs. Wayne recently completed a four-week course from the National Development Council and is now a Certified Economic Development Finance Professional.
Wayne was born in Memphis and grew up in DeSoto County, Mississippi. He earned an Associate’s degree from Northwest Community College, before earning his Bachelor's (Political Science) and Master's (Social Science and Business) degrees from the University of Mississippi. He and his wife, Sue Ann, live in Saltillo. She is executive director of Gardner-Simmons Home for Girls, Inc.
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