Laurel Arvanitidis is the director of business development at the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for the City and County of San Francisco, CA. In this role she oversees all business attraction and retention activities for the city. Arvanitidis has worked for the city for 18 years and previously led San Francisco’s attraction and retention efforts for the technology sector, comprising 2,200 companies and 58,000 employees. Earlier, she worked for former San Francisco Mayor Newsom's Film and Television Office to attract and facilitate film projects, including The Pursuit of Happyness, Milk, and Hemingway and Gellhorn.