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Sitting inside Heavenly Coffeehouse in Brooks, Niki Vanderslice smiled as she described the life she hopes to return to someday.
“I came from yoga pants and T-shirts,” she said. “And one day I’ll go back to yoga pants and T-shirts.”
That day, however, isn’t today.
Despite speculation following last week’s Fayette County Development Authority board meeting, Vanderslice has not resigned as the organization’s president and CEO, nor is she leaving for another economic development job. Instead, the FCDA has launched a carefully planned succession process that will keep her in her current role while a chief operating officer is recruited, trained, and eventually succeeds her. Afterward, she will remain with the organization as a strategic advisor before ultimately stepping away. The phased transition is expected to span about two years after her successor is hired.
For Vanderslice, the announcement wasn’t an abrupt decision. It was the next step in a plan that began before she ever accepted the job.
“I told them no three times,” she recalled of being approached in late 2022 after the FCDA’s previous president relocated out of state. She ultimately agreed to serve as interim president and CEO for what everyone expected would be a six-month assignment.
Instead, six months became nearly four years.
A promise kept
Vanderslice had served on the FCDA board beginning in 2016, when county leaders challenged the authority to become financially self-sufficient rather than relying on taxpayer support.
“We did,” she said simply.
Not only does the Development Authority no longer require taxpayer funding to operate, it also returned a portion of the money the county and municipalities had contributed over the years. Revenue generated from the sale of land for the QTS project has since allowed the FCDA to sustain its own operations while reinvesting in the community. Through its grant program, the authority has helped fund Launch Fayette, an entrepreneurship initiative created in partnership with Southern Crescent Technical College and the Fayette County School System, while also investing in infrastructure that helped secure major projects, including U.S. Soccer.
When she accepted the interim leadership role, Vanderslice quickly realized the board’s future goals would require continuity.
Then came another opportunity.
In 2023, the FCDA secured the U.S. Soccer Federation’s Arthur M. Blank National Training Center, a project Vanderslice has often described as transformational for Fayette County. She publicly committed to remaining until the facility opened.
Last month, it did.
“Strong organizations should always have succession planning in place, and I said years ago that the location of the U.S. Soccer Federation Headquarters and the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center was my milestone,” Vanderslice said in the FCDA’s announcement. “We set out to do something extraordinary, and Fayette delivered. I’m proud of that work.”
During her tenure as president and CEO, the FCDA says it facilitated more than 700 high-quality jobs and more than $12 billion in capital investment while developing Foremost Fayette, the county’s five-year economic development strategy built from input gathered from more than 700 residents and stakeholders.
Local leaders weigh in
As the FCDA begins its leadership transition, local officials say Vanderslice leaves behind an organization that is stronger than the one she inherited.
“Niki didn’t just run an organization, she built one,” FCDA Vice Chairman Ed Johnson said. “She brought a strategic vision to FCDA, she built the relationships that made that vision possible, and she leaves us with a team, a plan, and a track record that the next leader can build on.”
Johnson said the board views the transition as an evolution rather than a departure.
“We are not losing Niki,” he said. “We’re entering a new phase of our partnership with her and the future of the FCDA.”
Fayette County Manager Steve Rapson also praised Vanderslice’s leadership, pointing to her focus on attracting industries that matched the county’s long-term goals while building partnerships throughout the community.
“It has been a privilege to work with Niki and recognize her dedication and hard work in bringing strategic projects to the county,” Rapson said. “Her talent for collaboration and partnership is central to advancing economic development projects, and her influence is clearly felt throughout Fayette County.”
Going home, not moving on
Vanderslice is quick to correct another misconception.
“I’m not going to another community. I’m not going to another job. I’m going home to be a wife and a mother.”
That was always the plan, she said.
Before returning to public service, Vanderslice had stepped away from a nearly 15-year career in community and economic development to focus on raising her family in Fayette County. Accepting the interim role meant putting that chapter of life on hold.
Now she wants it back.
She and her husband have built their lives in Brooks, where they are raising their daughters surrounded by extended family. During the interview, she pointed to Heavenly Coffeehouse as more than just a place to meet for coffee.
“This is my coffee shop,” she said. “This is where I walk to.”
She hopes the slower pace will allow more time with family, more travel, and more opportunities to enjoy the community she has spent years helping shape.
Looking beyond today’s headlines
Vanderslice also addressed another misconception—that her transition is connected to recent public debate surrounding data centers.
“Absolutely not,” she said.
She said conversations about eventually stepping away from the president and CEO role began when she accepted the interim position in 2022 and became more formal about 18 months ago as the board began developing a succession plan.
The FCDA also hired an outside consultant to evaluate the organization’s future staffing needs and recommend a leadership structure aligned with its long-term strategic plan. That review led to the decision to recruit a chief operating officer who will eventually succeed Vanderslice while she transitions into a strategic advisor role to pass along years of institutional knowledge.
She also said the Development Authority has already shifted its focus away from recruiting additional data centers. In the second half of 2024, she said, the board concluded Fayette County had sufficiently diversified its commercial tax base and directed staff not to pursue incentives for future data center projects.
She said Fayetteville has prohibited new data centers through its zoning ordinance, Tyrone has no remaining sites capable of accommodating one, and Peachtree City has neither the available land, the zoning, nor the desire to recruit one.
“We’re done,” she said, noting that prospective developers still call periodically, but the answer has been the same.
Instead, she said, the Development Authority is now focused on supporting legacy businesses, strengthening workforce development, and recruiting employers that fit the vision outlined in Foremost Fayette.
She acknowledged the criticism surrounding economic development projects but said she has always viewed the organization’s responsibility through a long-term lens.
“When I was teaching and facilitating community sessions,” she said, “I would tell communities that leadership is making the hard decisions that may not get you reelected or reappointed, but they’re what’s right when looking toward the future.”
A message to Fayette County
Asked what she wanted to say to the community after years of serving first as an FCDA board member and then as its president and CEO, Vanderslice didn’t hesitate.
“Fayette County, I love you.”
She paused before continuing.
“I believe that the decisions that the FCDA has made over the last decade, time will show that it has a positive impact for Fayette County’s trajectory.”
Her departure, whenever it ultimately comes, won’t happen quickly.
The FCDA board will begin searching for a chief operating officer, a process Vanderslice expects to be deliberate rather than rushed. Once that person is hired, she will spend six to nine months training them before they assume the president and CEO position. She will then remain as a strategic advisor for another 12 to 15 months before completing the transition.
Until then, she plans to keep doing what she’s done for years—helping build Fayette County’s future.
And someday, when the time is right, she’ll trade the business suits for yoga pants and T-shirts once again.
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