GSA Daily Staff Report
Published March 9, 2010

Ten at the Top, a 10-county nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting regional collaboration, has hired Dean Hybl as its first full-time executive director.

Hybl spent the past five years promoting regional collaboration in the Central Florida area.

“We are very excited about the experience and perspective that Dean brings to the Upstate and Ten at the Top,” said Irv Welling, the Chairman Emeritus at Elliott Davis and the Chairman of Ten at the Top. “It is important for us to build on the great work done through Reality Check last year and Dean has already hit the ground running with ideas on how we can move to the next level and turn the Reality Check into a Regional Vision.”

Upstate Reality Check was a day-long event held in April 2009 during which more than 500 leaders from across the Upstate developed land-use scenarios for future growth. The Upstate is projected to add more than 234,000 residents and 200,000 jobs in the next 20 years. Among the outcomes of Reality Check was the identification of four potential patterns for how the region could grow in the future. The participants also identified and prioritized regional principles and potential barriers.

Hybl was part of a similar initiative in Central Florida through myregion.org, which promotes regional development and collaboration in the Orlando area. He served as the program manager for the “How Shall We Grow?” initiative, which engaged more than 20,000 residents in an 18-month conversation about growth in the region. The project culminated with the unveiling of the Central Florida Regional Growth Vision in August 2007.

“My family is excited to call the Upstate our new home and I am pleased to have this opportunity to help the residents of our region create a shared vision for our future,” Hybl said. “Because of the excellent work that has already been done, we will be able to use the results of Reality Check as the base for developing a Shared Regional Vision for the Upstate.

“We know that growth is coming, so the question is whether you want to shape that growth or let it shape you,” Hybl added. “Creating the Shared Upstate Vision and then developing an implementation strategy that includes buy-in from elected officials, community leaders and citizens will help ensure that we can maintain a high standard quality of life for our residents while hopefully also enjoying the increased economic vitality that typically is associated with such growth.”

Over the next several months, Hybl and members of the Ten at the Top Board of Directors will be making presentations across the Upstate updating leaders and citizens on the results from Upstate Reality Check as well as the next steps in developing the Shared Upstate Vision. The process will include an intensive community input process, including an on-line regional survey, later this spring.

Details on the regional outreach will be outlined at a regional media breakfast to be held March 23 at the Carolina First Gallery on the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research campus in Greenville.

“Everyone should have the opportunity to give their input on the future of our region.” Hybl said. “We want to know what matters most to the residents of the Upstate and will use that feedback to create the Shared Upstate Vision.”