In this blog I’m going to share my experiences with you as the new president of the EDC of Wayne County. I’m excited to be back in Wayne County and I am truly honored to have been chosen for this position. I hope we can work together to make Wayne County a great place to live and work.

We titled my blog “The First 60 Days – From the Desk of the President”. Sixty days seems like a long time to keep a blog, but if the first week in my new position is any indication, I’ll blink and it will be over. My goal is to post, at least once a week, something about my experiences in the first days of being president of the EDC of Wayne County. I thought we could share some of my new experiences and you could see what I see when I look at Wayne County. Together I’m sure we’ll learn some things along the way too.

This first week has been all about getting up to speed on the projects the EDC has been working on. As I learn about current projects, it helps give me a feel for what I need to be focusing on in the future. Luckily, in my previous position with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, I was working on some of the same projects. The learning curve isn’t as bad as it could be. Economic development stops for no one, and certainly not for new presidents. Fortunately, the EDC is blessed with a great staff and they’ve done a tremendous job in keeping projects moving forward.

As I get up to speed, a couple of things leap out at me right away: 1. workforce development and skills enhancement and; 2. available buildings and sites. Both are critical to our success in attracting projects that have higher paying jobs. We have to have the workforce to fill higher skilled jobs if we want higher paying jobs in our community. And if we want to attract more projects we have to have a place where businesses want to locate. Neither issue is easy to solve. These are two things we’ll be talking more about in the future -and looking for partners to help us find solutions.

If you have questions for me, you can submit those via the new “Ask the EDC” feature on our revised homepage. If you go to the “Ask the EDC” page, there’s a short form you can fill out. Ask your question and hit the send button.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts from the first few weeks. I’m looking forward to hearing from you too. Hope you have a great week. We’ll catch up again soon!