John Fregonese is principal in Fregonese Calthorpe Associates, a planning firm in Portland, Oregon. Before forming his firm, John was the planning director for Metro, the regional government in Portland, whose primary mission was to develop and implement a regional growth concept.

He has been a planner for 25 years. His love of cities began at an early age, when he lived in such exotic places as Hollywood and Rome - the son of an Argentine film director and a Hollywood actress.

Bill Ramsey is a consultant for the Fayetteville, Arkansas, Chamber of Commerce, the nation's top performing city on the latest Milken Institute's ranking of economic performance among the nation's metropolitan areas.

Las Vegas was named the second best performing city in the nation. Hugh Anderson is a trustee of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. He is also a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch.

The Best Performing Cities ranking depicts those U.S. metropolitan areas that are recording the top economic performance and creating the most jobs in the nation. The components of the index include job, wage and salary, and technology growth.