Troels serves as the Executive Vice President for the Greater Sacramento Economic Council. A native of Denmark and an accomplished economic development executive, Troels has personally been involved in the creation of over 13,000 jobs throughout his career. Prior to joining the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, he led tradable sector economic development activities for the City of Portland, Oregon. During his tenure, he strategically repositioned his team to serve the City of Portland’s key industry clusters with a strong inclusion lens and reenergized the city’s international trade efforts, supporting the creation of over 4,400 jobs. Troels was also instrumental in serving Portland businesses during the pandemic, leading several major emergency grant and loan programs, advising key leaders on recovery planning and co-creating the statewide Small Business Stabilization Fund in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation.

Prior to his time in Portland, Troels spent nine years in Atlanta in a variety of economic development roles, both local and regional. Before he found his true calling in economic development, Troels started out in the community development space, building his nonprofit management and accounting skills at one of New York City’s largest community-based nonprofits, CAMBA. He is particularly passionate about early childhood nutrition and currently serves as a Board Member for the Urban School Food Alliance, a coalition of the largest school districts in the United States working together to improve school food for our nation’s children.

Troels is a proud alum of the University of Copenhagen with a BA in Political Science and holds two master’s degrees: a Master of Public Administration from Baruch College and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Georgia Tech. The latter earned him the prestigious Ed McClure Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, given to the top Master’s student paper in North America each year.