EB5 Investors Magazine Volume 4 Issue 1 | Page 68

EB-5 COMMUNITY ECONOMISTS Sean Flynn Impact Econometrics LLC Sean Flynn is an associate professor of economics at Scripps College in Claremont, California. He is the author of the international best-seller Economics for Dummies, which has now been translated into seven foreign languages, as well as the coauthor, along with Campbell McConnell and Stanley Brue, of the world’s best-selling Michael Kester Impact DataSource LLC Michael Kester is the lead EB-5 economist with Impact DataSource LLC, an economic research, analysis and consulting firm based out of Austin, TX. In the past twenty years, Impact DataSource has completed more than 2,500 economic impact analyses in all industry sectors across the United States for firms, projects and activities. Leveraging this 66 college economics textbook, Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies. The later is also the world’s best selling textbook of any subject. His research specialties are behavioral economics and behavioral finance, with a focus on irrational investors. Flynn is an economist and the founder of Impact Econometrics LLC, headquartered in Upland, California. Flynn is skilled in conducting USCIS-compliant economic impact studies involving complex input/output models, such as IMPLAN, for EB-5 development projects. He started Impact Econometrics after completing an economic impact analysis to assist a friend who was utilizing EB-5 money for a major hotel project in California. Now he works with top immigration lawyers to both fund American entrepreneurs and to give international investors the opportunity to become U.S. citizens. Flynn has consulted on a number of projects in fields such as hospitality, retirement, and recreation in order to calculate the economic impact related to construction, operation, remodeling, and more. Flynn taught economics and finance for seven years at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before relocating to sunny southern California, where he has taught since 2010 at Scripps College in Claremont. An avid martial artist, Flynn is a former aikido national champion and has coached five of his students to U.S. national aikido titles. Flynn’s research specialties are behavioral economics and behavioral finance, with a focus on irrational investors. A commentator on FOX Business, ABC News, and NPR, Flynn holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California Berkeley, where he completed his dissertation under the supervision of 2001 Nobel Laureate George Akerlof. deep experience in economic analysis, Impact DataSource has become an EB-5 industry leader in economic studies, Targeted Employment Area analysis and due diligence. As Impact DataSource’s lead EB-5 economist, Kester has been in charge of a team that has prepared more than 125 comprehensive EB-5 economic impact analyses and assisted clients in obtaining hundreds of TEA letters. Impact DataSource is also a part of USAdvisor’s due diligence team. Kester has conducted EB-5-specific economic analyses of various project types and sizes including hotels, assisted living facilities, multi- and single-family developments, mixed-use developments, infrastructure projects, oil and gas projects, and manufacturing firms. He continues to focus on providing EB-5 consulting, services and deliverables that reflect the evolving needs of EB-5 clients and also the changing requirements of USCIS. Outside of client work, Kester and the Impact DataSource team have other significant industry involvement. Kester is on the Invest in the USA (IIUSA) EB-5 editorial committee, offering the economist’s perspective and authoring several articles for the Regional Center Business Journal, and he has led and participated in several economist-related webinars and panels. Impact DataSource also provides free public tools, including a user-friendly TEA map, to assist and educate EB-5 stakeholders in economic analysis and TEA-related matters. Kester is originally from Wichita, Kansas and graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. He moved to Austin after working several years for Deloitte Consulting in New York City. He enjoys spending time with his wife Emily, daughter Isabella, and Airedale mutt Ozzie. Whatever time might be left is split between playing keys in a local Austin band, and soccer. EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE