Public systems and emerging technology, fluent in both.
Metz Strategies was founded on a simple observation: the sectors reshaping the economy move faster than the institutions meant to govern and invest in them. Someone has to sit fluently in both rooms.
Background
Josh Metz has spent close to thirty years inside public sector economic development — building the coalitions, funding strategies, and policy frameworks that let cities, counties, and special districts act on the technologies changing their regions. That work now runs alongside a founding role at Monterey Bay DART, and a growing practice advising drone, autonomous vehicle, maritime, AI, and climate resilience ventures on how to work with public institutions rather than around them.
MLA, UC Berkeley
BS in Environmental Biology, Humboldt State University — a grounding in land, place, and systems thinking that still shapes how engagements are framed.
Fort Ord Reuse Authority
Advanced from Senior Planner through Economic Development Manager to Executive Officer, leading the final phase of a 26-year military-base reuse and regional transformation program.
Regional Government Services
Built and led RGS's Economic Development Service Line, converting institutional relationships into a public-sector advisory practice spanning municipal, county, and regional clients across California.
Co-founder & Executive Director, DART
Co-founded and scaled a nonprofit ecosystem platform for the low-altitude economy — workforce, infrastructure, policy, and convening across the drone, aviation, and robotics sector.
Metz Strategies
Applying the accumulated methodology across clients, sectors, and geographies — where land, infrastructure, capital, workforce, and technology have to move together.
Sector experience
How we work
Equity isn't a section of the plan — it's a filter every recommendation runs through. Growth that doesn't reach the people already in a place isn't a strategy worth advising on.