Forensic economist Don Frankenfeld has captured the attention and withstood the withering criticism of the world’s toughest audiences: attorneys, judges and juries in state and federal courtrooms throughout the country. Frankenfeld is also an internet evangelist and consultant. His long-standing interest in historical preservation was reawakened when his firm won a rigorous competition to build a new website for Deadwood, South Dakota, a national historic landmark.

As a state senator in 1978, Frankenfeld authored and ushered to passage one of the nation’s first tax increment district codes, a precursor to BIDs. Later as a private citizen, he started South Dakota’s first bank-chartered Community Development Corporation, enlisting seventeen banks as sponsors. An accomplished public speaker, Frankenfeld is noted for his lively and insightful presentations.

Frankenfeld attended Yale as a National Merit Scholar (AB 1970), and received an MBA from Harvard Business School (1975). In 1987 he returned to Harvard as a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, earning an MPA in 1988.