Susie Shannon
Sue-Ann (“Susie”) Gerald Shannon serves as the President & CEO of the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness (“SC Competes”), a business-led, nonprofit organization that drives South Carolina’s long-term economic growth through managing select industry clusters and providing the research, network, and resources that clusters require to thrive. Industry clusters are concentrations of interdependent firms related through their industrial activities and includes both competitors and collaborators. The resulting inter-cluster business environment fosters innovation. Innovation, in turn, spurs new business ventures.
Signature initiatives and industry clusters directly managed by SC Competes include SC Aerospace, SC Logistics, SC Tech and CyberSecureSC, Palmetto AI Corridor, TransformSC (K12 education at the intersection of industry), and SC Fraunhofer USA Alliance (applied research co-investment). SC Competes also provides resources and support to other clusters and initiatives across the state, and its formation in 2004 marked the first time South Carolina’s business, government, and academic leadership came together to address long-term competitiveness factors.
Since joining SC Competes, Susie has been repeatedly recognized as being one of Columbia Business Monthly’s 50 Most Influential People in Business and has been named to its Business Hall of Fame. She was also the subject of a feature CEO article in SC Manufacturing Journal and was included in the inaugural “Palmetto 500” of SC’s economic movers and shakers.
Susie has an extensive history leading innovative, forward-looking organizations and initiatives throughout South Carolina. For 13 years, she served on a senior strategic team overseeing the work of a network of organizations seeking to transform local areas into economically-vibrant communities. She also worked as Director of Research for Palmetto Institute, an independent research foundation whose issues included Teach For America, The Benefit Bank® of South Carolina, tax reform, commercialization, agribusiness, entrepreneurship training, and workforce quality. Susie practiced for many years in the Columbia office of McNair Law Firm, P.A. (now Burr Forman), in its Admin.-Reg. section, where her practice areas included telecommunications and procurement.
In 2015, she was appointed by then-Governor Haley to serve on the Board of Commissioners for the South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority (Vice-Chair). Susie now serves on the EPSCoR State Committee, SC Automotive Council, SC Research Authority Board of Trustees (Program Committee Chair), SustainSC Board of Directors, NIST/NICE Working Group (Cybersecurity), SC Bar Technology, Innovation & Intellectual Property Committee (Co-Chair). She has also served on the SC Broadband Advisory Council, SC Apprenticeship Taskforce and Workforce Innovation Network Team (US Chamber of Commerce-led initiative of select states to foster cutting-edge workforce development). She chaired the SC Governor’s Cybersecurity Economic Growth working group, and was appointed as a Commissioner by SC Governor McMaster on the Education Commission of the States interstate compact.
Susie’s community service activities have included TogetherSC (fka SCANPO), Jefferson Awards Fnd-Midlands (chair), SC Housing Trust Fund, United Way of Midlands’ Public Policy Cmtee and Young Leaders Soc’y, Prevent Child Abuse-SC, SC Thrive (Chair Emeritus), and Central Carolina Community Foundation.
Susie is a graduate of Riley Institute Diversity Leaders Initiative and the Nonprofit Leadership Institute of Francis Marion University and is a member of Liberty Fellowship (part of Aspen Global Leadership Network). She also served in the US Army Reserves and is a Veteran of the Gulf War.