Betsy Fretwell

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Betsy has over 30 years of experience working in leadership roles in both the public and private sectors in Southern Nevada. Her wide-ranging experiences as a public-sector CEO/City Manager and as a private sector executive notably position her to provide valuable leadership in a variety of settings. She has a unique understanding of the intersection of government and private sector activities. She is widely recognized as a business, community and civic leader and has served in a variety of leadership roles on non- profit boards in Southern Nevada and served on State appointed committees. Fretwell is a published author in several professional journals and is a sought-after speaker, moderator, and panel participant.

Most recently, Betsy served as COO of the Las Vegas Grand Prix prior to returning to the company she founded, C4WARD STRATEGIES LTD, an independent consulting firm, specializing in management, government, and technology consulting, executive development, business development, program management and strategic advisory services.

She worked for Switch (an IT infrastructure ecosystem and data center company) for over 5 years. Betsy served as Executive Vice President of Strategy leading efforts in government affairs, public sector business development, mergers and acquisitions, strategic initiatives, real estate, entitlements and land development, and emerging technologies. She joined the Switch executive team when the company made its IPO in 2017 with a value of approximately $3.5B serving the company in progressively responsible roles until Switch was taken back private in late 2022 at a valuation of $11B.

Prior to working for Switch, Betsy retired from the City of Las Vegas, the nation’s 25th largest city, after 17 years and served as the second-longest serving City Manager in the city’s history, from 2009 to 2017. As a nationally recognized leader, she oversaw a complex organization of more than 3,300 employees with a $1.3B annual budget. Fretwell led the city through the Great Recession eliminating the operating shortfall of $115M and $400M structural deficit while maintaining the City’s AA bond rating. She also served as the Executive Director of the Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency charged with the economic revitalization of downtown Las Vegas. Under Fretwell’s leadership, the city built a new City Hall, attracted the corporate headquarters of Zappos.com, Inc. to downtown, completed The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, completed the MOB museum, and attracted the new UNLV Medical School to the City’s Medical District. During her tenure, she negotiated several highly complex development agreements for more than 15,000 acres of land within the City.

As a change leader, Betsy developed the Innovation District in downtown Las Vegas to test game-changing technologies in a live environment, hosting the first real-time autonomous shuttle in the U.S. The city also achieved a 4-Star community sustainability ranking by converting all city facilities to 100% renewable energy sources, improved the city’s equality index score to 100, and open data ranking to 1st among the nation’s cities during her time as City Manager.

Betsy’s prior work experience includes providing government relations, lobbying, strategic planning, organizational development, process improvement and special projects management at both the City of Henderson from 1998-2000 and Clark County from 1991- 1998.

Fretwell is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration. She completed the Harvard University Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program in 2007. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Betsy served as the Vegas Chamber 2024 Chair and also serves on the Board of Directors for The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, MountainView Hospital, Desert Research Institute Foundation, and Las Vegas Events. She is an emeritus board member of Nevada Public Radio. For fun Betsy enjoys playing golf, hiking, biking, gardening, and cooking.