Andrea Wesser-Brawner is Orange County’s first Chief Innovation & Emerging Technology Officer where she builds upon Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings’ vision of Orange Tomorrow” and creating a culture of innovation, collaboration, and inclusiveness.

In her role, she focuses on creating public and private partnerships throughout the entire organization to leverage technology to keep up with global trends and position Orange County as a leader in the innovation industry. Through the development of strategic plans and collaborating with a variety of critical stakeholders, Wesser-Brawner believes Orange County is set to be a regional, national, and international powerhouse of cutting-edge technology through championing large-scale projects bringing positive impacts to Orange County residents and visitors for years to come.

Ms. Andrea Wesser-Brawner has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs, research faculty, and others in starting technology companies, pursuing federal funding for R&D, and generating revenues. She built and led five technology accelerator programs, some with federal partners such as U.S. Department of Energy and Economic Development Administration. Having managed such diverse and large regional initiatives, she has since become a trusted advisor to the development of entrepreneur support and innovation ecosystems, most notably in programming, funding, and operations plans. She also handled business development and large federal grant management for BRIDG (formerly, the International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research), an industry-led consortium for the manufacturing of sensors and photonic devices.

Andrea has also been an entrepreneur while executive in a number of micro- and nano-technology based start-up companies. She graduated with Honors from the University of Central Florida with her Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering.