LAEDC Names New Chief Economist

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. named Robert Kleinhenz its new chief economist of the Kyser Center for Economic Research.

Kleinhenz will take over for Nancy Sidhu, who is retiring after leading the center, named for the late economist Jack Kyser.

Kleinhenz recently served as deputy chief economist of the California Association of Realtors (CAR), where he managed CAR’s economics department, which prepared and published information on California’s housing market.

Before joining CAR, Kleinhenz taught economics for more than 15 years, most recently at California State University, Fullerton. He also served as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for Business Economics.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Kleinhenz as the new head of the Kyser Center, particularly as he was heartily recommended to us by both its founder, Jack Kyser, and its chief economist, Dr. Nancy Sidhu, when we began long-term succession planning for the center’s leadership about two years ago,”said LAEDC Chief Executive Officer Bill Allen.

The LAEDC also promoted Christine Cooper to vice president of its economic and policy-analysis group, which conducts economic analyses for regional and statewide private, public and nonprofit entities.—Alison A. Nieder