Apr 10, 2017 2 min read

PITTSBURGH – Dennis Yablonsky, chief executive officer of Allegheny Conference on Community Development and its affiliates, said Monday he’ll step down at the end of the year after nine years as leader of the economic and community development organization.

During Yablonsky’s tenure, the conference played a leading role in welcoming the world to Pittsburgh for the G-20 Summit, securing sustainable state investment in transportation infrastructure and public transit, and producing the transformational “Inflection Point” report on the future of work in the 10-county region.

Allegheny Conference Chair Richard Harshman, chairman, president and CEO of ATI, said Yablonsky played an important role in securing more than 300 business investment wins through Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.

“These wins culminated with Shell Pennsylvania Chemicals’ decision to move forward with a multi-billion dollar petrochemical facility in Beaver County, the largest from-the-ground-up industrial investment in our region in a generation and the first major U.S. project of its type in 20 years to be built outside the Gulf Coast.

Yablonsky joined the conference after six years as Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development during the Rendell administration. Earlier in his career, he led both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including 12 years as CEO of The Carnegie Group, a pioneering provider of artificial intelligence solutions, and as founder of Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, which seeded investment in the region’s burgeoning tech economy.

A native of McKeesport, Yablonsky lives in the South Hills.

His varied accomplishments at the conference included the creation of the Power of 32 Site Development Fund, for which he spearheaded efforts to raise almost $49 million to invest in infrastructure on business sites throughout a four-state region. He was the creator of Strengthening Communities Partnership which targets business investment in seven Southwestern Pennsylvania communities (Connellsville, Homewood, McKees Rocks, Mt. Oliver/Knoxville, Sharpsburg, Washington and Wilkinsburg). During his tenure the conference led statewide efforts to improve the economic climate, including the elimination of the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax, saving Pennsylvania employers more than $1 billion a year.

Regarding his future plans, Yablonsky said, “I am not planning to retire, I’m just retiring from full-time work.”

Allegheny Conference has appointed a committee which has begun a search to identify candidates for the position.