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thePeorian.com
of the area. The most fun part
of that area was that most of the
people there were transplants
and so they were sort of their
own pioneers. These were people
building cities and with lofty ide-
als,” he said.
While in Elgin McConoughey
became chairman of the Kane
County Economic Development
Commission, yet another experi-
ence “that added real value to
what I am doing here.”
But he and Gina were looking
for something different as their
children grew, different from the
hour long commute to and from
work each day and yet someplace
with much to offer. “I started
looking into the dynamics of the
job and of the area and saw some
challenges I wanted to take on,”
he said.
One of the challenges was to
give definition to the Heartland
Partnership, a blanket organiza-
tion encompassing the Peoria
Area Chamber of Commerce, the
Economic Development Council
for Central Illinois, Peoria NEXT,
the Port District and several
other companies. It also included
hiring the right people to bring
about change and growth, some-
thing he said he’s proud to have
accomplished.
“Every day I get up and come
to the office, I get energized by
the people here. We get them
involved in their jobs, their tasks
and in the community. They are
making things happen in the
community and they really get it
done,” he said.
“Sometimes I tell the staff to
look out our front window and
look at the (Murray Baker) bridge
right there. Nobody gives a sec-
ond thought to how that bridge
came to be, who built it or what
went into getting it built. It’s just
there. But it took people just like
us to do it, people with the vision
to get it done, to build things
that aren’t there now. I look for
people I know get it, yet with a
diversity of backgrounds and
personalities that bring a richness
to the process,” McConoughey
said.
He said most of the problems
that land on the Heartland Part-
nership’s doorstep are problems
that have existed for years but
that nobody was able to fix. “We
will try and figure it out, fix it
and make it work,” he said.
In the 10 years he’s been
in Peoria, McConoughey has
witnessed some of the region’s
diversification from being chiefly
a manufacturing area. Much of
that diversification had occurred
before he came, “but the need
to diversify comes around again
and again and our job is to be
ready for it and help make it
happen so we have a place that is
strong and is an attractive place
to live and work. Local patriotism
is great but you need a lot of cre-
ative energy to make good things
happen.”
McConoughey said there have
been many good things happen
in his tenure that he has been
proud to lead or be part of. Asked
which he’s most proud of he
started with the “formation and
acceleration of Peoria NEXT and
helping, through that organiza-
tion, some really good businesses
get started.”
The Heartland Partnership
built and owns the Peoria NEXT
Innovation Center, basically an
incubator for start-up businesses.
He recalls taking his children
to watch the demolition of the
building that stood at Main and
Orange streets before the Innova-
tion Center was constructed. “I
thought it was important they see
it because it was emblematic of
what we were trying to do for the
region. That, I think, really was a
watershed moment for the Heart-
land Partnership,” he said.
He credited Drs. Dick Lister
and Donald Rager for the idea
of Peoria NEXT, the Innovation
Center and helping bring the
CEOs of area business together
to push forward the idea that
start-up small business needed
a diverse base from which to
grow. “We give the backbone to
Peoria NEXT and we put together
the way to run the organiza-
tion, but it works because of the
partner organizations involved,”
McConoughey said. “That was
important because this was new.
We had no benchmark. We had to
justify the return on the invest-
ment.”
Continued on page 24
Nominees
Jim McConoughey speaks during a recent meeting of
the Economic Development Council for Central Illinois.