Wayne is a recognized author and lecturer on air quality, climate change, and Superfund and brownfield redevelopment, and a former chair of the Tennessee Bar Association's Environmental Law Committee. Wayne also has deep political experience and relationships, and brings unique experience on emerging environmental policies and advanced manufacturing initiatives to his practice.
Wayne has consistently provided strategic leadership and execution for projects that have received national environmental and economic development acclaim.
From 2006 to 2014, he served as president and CEO of the Enterprise Center, Chattanooga's high-tech economic development agency, where he worked with Chattanooga's high-speed broadband initiative and U.S. government entities on projects throughout the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor, which encompasses Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama. In 2016, Wayne received the Corridor Champion Award from the Tennessee Valley Corridor.
Wayne has served as senior vice president and corporate general counsel for an environmental remediation company performing multi-million-dollar environmental restoration projects on the Great Lakes and Louisiana-Texas Gulf Coast, and as president of an environmental and geotechnical engineering company (1998 – 2005).
Among many other corporate representations, Wayne was outside legal counsel to Chattanooga's lead redevelopment agency in the 1990s. He led initial brownfield redevelopment planning for Chattanooga's world-class riverfront development, as well as the development of the Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant site at Enterprise South, which ultimately became the Volkswagen Automotive facility in Chattanooga.
During this period and for a term of 15 years, Wayne was chair of the Environment Committee for the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association, which is now known as the Tennessee Association of Manufacturers. He has also been an active member of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Air Quality and Solid Waste Sub-committees.
During his tenure as executive director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Air Pollution Control Bureau (1979 – 1990), Wayne developed the implementation strategies that brought worldwide recognition to Chattanooga's environmental initiatives.
Included among his many activities are service on the national level as president of the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials (ALAPCO), now known as the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), and participation in the development of the National Air Toxics Strategy, as codified in the 1990 Clean Air Act, through his tenure as chair of ALAPCO's Air Toxics Committee.
Wayne was the campaign chair for U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp in 1996 and 1998, and has been a delegate or alternate delegate for Republican presidential candidates at several national conventions (2000, 2004, and 2012).