DEALTEK, Ltd. - Rhett L. Weiss

Rhett L. Weiss
Statement of Qualifications

Rhett is Chairman and CEO of DEALTEK, Ltd. He specializes in development, expansion, and location strategies for headquarters, manufacturing, and other operating facilities. Rhett has negotiated, advocated, and closed deals for many Global 500, Fortune 500, and other companies. He has advised them throughout their decision process in both domestic and cross-border initiatives. His work has included forming joint ventures and strategic alliances, building and acquiring facilities, structuring their financing, and securing pro-business legislative changes. The facility deals alone have totaled an initial capital investment over $15 billion and have received incentives and other savings worth millions of dollars.

His experience includes all aspects of the project and business development process: entity formation; strategic planning; feasibility analysis; transaction structuring and negotiations; permitting and zoning; facility construction and operations; capital investment and finance; infrastructure installation; company-community relations; project information management and disclosure; incentive package design and negotiation; and public hearings and executive sessions. He also has helped companies establish, and qualify operations in, enterprise zones and foreign-trade zones.

Rhett brings a unique perspective from his background in business, real estate, and tax. DEALS^® software users and clients benefit from the creative approaches and value-added results that emerge from combining these three disciplines. Companies of all sizes frequently call upon Rhett to identify, craft, and execute novel cost-savings and time-savings opportunities for their business initiatives. The very idea for award-winning DEALS^®, which he invented, stemmed from applying this combination of disciplines and his decision methodology to discern and seize these savings.

Before founding DEALTEK, Rhett directed a corporate expansion and relocation consulting practice at a Big 4 firm. He previously also served as a bank’s Chief Operations Officer and practiced law at a major international law firm. Rhett holds law licenses in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York. He has focused his consulting and law practices on business, finance, and real estate deals; technology licensing; entrepreneurial ventures; and economic development.

He frequently presents lectures and programs on negotiations and related transactional topics. He is the author of Using the Internet to Move Technology Around the World Without Ever Leaving Home; The Electronic Age of Economic Development: Using the Internet to See the Project through the Company’s Eyes; Web-Based Site Selection: Getting the Information You Need at Internet Speed; The Real Deal about Negotiating Project Incentives; Working with Economic Developers; The Negotiating Process: Optimizing Give and Take; Doing Global Business in a United States Foreign-Trade Zone; Sales and Use Tax-Exempt Construction: An Innovative Economic Development Technique to Help Land the Deal; Doing a Deal in the U.S.: Incentives and the Project Negotiation Process; and Portfolio Transactions: The Anatomy of a Deal. He also has served as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises at Syracuse University’s School of Management, teaching both the cornerstone and capstone entrepreneurship courses.

Among his professional affiliations are memberships in various economic development and bar associations. He also has been involved in many civic and community activities. Among them, Rhett is President of a local Rotary Club, is a Board Member of a regional technology alliance, and serves on two councils (technology and entrepreneur) of the regional chamber of commerce. Previously, he served as Chairman of the D.C. Bar’s Real Estate Transactions Committee, Chairman of the boards of a county-wide chamber of commerce and of an area arts council, a Board Member of education-related foundations and other non-profits, and the District Chairman and Council Treasurer of the Boy Scouts of America. He holds a United States Soccer Federation coaching license and has coached youth soccer.

Rhett received a B.S. in Management (finance major) with honors from Tulane University, a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the College of William and Mary, and an Executive Certificate in International Business from Georgetown University. He also completed the Economic Development Course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His biography is in several books, including Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in American Law, and Men of Achievement.