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Those organizations include
area colleges and universities,
hospitals, the University of
Illinois College of Medicine at
Peoria, the National Center for
Agricultural Research and Cater-
pillar Inc.
Another accomplishment of
which he’s proud is the role he
played in getting the new Cancer
Research Center built at the Col-
lege of Medicine. “The idea had
been kicking around for a while
but nothing much was getting
done. So we took a risk. The
Heartland Partnership bought
the land and donated it to the
University of Illinois, but it took
teamwork from people like Ray
LaHood (then a congressman,
now U.S. Secretary of Transpor-
tation) to bring people together,
impassioned people to raise the
funds to get it built. It took a lot
of balance and teamwork and
now we have the beginning of
how cancer research can really be
done,” he said.
His involvement in both of
those projects truly brought to
the forefront what he does. As
he explained, “If I am doing my
job well, I’m a change agent.
A lot of times that isn’t easy to
understand but it means having
the wisdom to decide the best
way to go and then having the
courage to move forward with
it. It requires a lot of trust from
people, from the community, and
I believe I have that trust.”
Community service also is im-
portant to McConoughey. Some-
times he can combine it with the
job, such as helping the local CEO
Roundtable be involved with
reading and tutoring programs
for District 150, the Build the
Block campaign that resulted in
the new Riverfront Museum and
Caterpillar Visitors Center, both
of which are now under construc-
tion, and the Quest Charter Acad-
emy that aims to bring students
world-class education in math,
science and technology.
He has served on many boards
through the region and has done
volunteer work for Easter Seals,
the Boy Scouts, Wildlife Prairie
State Park and others.
In 2009 Jim and Gina McCo-
noughey co-chaired the Heart
of Illinois United Way Annual
Campaign.
There will be more such activ-
ity in the future, McConoughey
said. And one of his chief jobs
will be to continue bringing in
talented people, and grooming
them for leadership. “I want to
build a great leadership base for
this community, for the entire
region, so that it never lacks for
leadership,” he said.
Further excursions into politics
“probably aren’t in the cards for
me. I would rather explore how
to prepare our future leaders.”
Jim McConoughey introduces Grant Brewen as the new executive director of Peoria NEXT.