Will Payne

Will Payne is Managing Partner of Coalfield Strategies, a one-stop economic development shop driving new business investment to Southwest Virginia, particularly renewable and innovative energy technology. He also serves as Director of the Southwest Virginia Energy Research and Development Authority. Will previously served in the Northam Administration, focusing on the developing U.S. East Coast offshore wind industry supply chain and economic sustainability strategies in Virginia’s coalfields. He serves as Vice Rector of the College of William & Mary's Board of Visitors. In 2015, he published Mark Warner the Dealmaker: From Business Success to the Business of Governing, a biography of former Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senator Mark Warner, detailing lessons in leadership at the intersection of business and politics.