The Change Agent
"Never stop learning, and question everything. "
Brent Kettler is able to translate his approach to life into his professional role. That’s pretty rare in today’s workplace, but happily, it characterizes the entire EnSite team. Brent said, “EnSite values relationship building, collaboration, education and questioning anything that doesn’t necessarily make sense, and that pretty succinctly describes who I am as a person.”
As EnSite’s director of economic research and strategy, Brent is helping EnSite change the way communities and businesses think about planning. He uses data – lots of it – to determine if the firm’s projects align with its mission. As an economic development professional and seasoned IT analyst, his work has also focused on building a robust workforce pipeline as a necessary component to a sustainable future.
In fact, he is convinced that workforce is THE true economic development incentive. Working with the numerous partners across Southwest Florida, Brent has been involved with the FutureMakers Coalition, which now boasts several hundred community leaders and regional champions. He serves on a lot of boards, but FutureMakers remains his favorite project.
An Ohio native and 18-year Floridian, Brent can name just about every character from pretty much any television show that aired between 1985 and 1995, cite just about any word from each of the Back to the Future movies, and he recite the batting averages of most Cleveland Indians, by year, from about 1988-1995. So he’s good to have on your trivia team.
Brent has three children, a wonderful girlfriend, her two children, and – soon – a dog.