SACC GETS NEW DIRECTOR

SIKESTON -- James C. Schwaninger has been named executive director of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce (SACC).

Schwaninger will replace Steve McPheeters, who has served in that position since early 1995.

McPheeters announced his resignation earlier this year, saying he wanted to return to private business.

Schwaninger will start his new duties in January of 1998.

Jerry Pullen, SACC president announced Schwaninger's appointment Wednesday.

Schwaninger, currently vice president of governmental affairs for JCPenney Company in Washington, D.C., is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

His early career included assignments as assistant director of the Missouri Press Association, and public relations director of Columbia College in Columbia, Mo.

He served in the Marines from 1959 to 1963.

Schwaninger joined JCPenney in 1972 as a regional, public relations representative in Chicago. He moved to the company's corporate headquarters in New York City in 1974, and was appointed director of government relations for JCPenney's in 1992.

Schwaninger has served on boards of several national and regional nonprofit charitable organizations, retail associations and professional groups.

He is currently chairman of the board for the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Washington D.C.; a director of Gifts-In-Kind International, and serves on advisory committees for the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Reading is Fundamental and Kids Voting/USA.

McPheeters' resignation is effective Dec. 31.

When he was hired in 1995, McPheeters gave a two-year commitment to the Chamber.

Pullen said the board appreciated the leadership that McPheeters provided. Pullen said that the Chamber has grown in membership and influence over the past two years.

There are about 500 SACC members from the Sikeston, Miner, southern Scott County and northern New Madrid County area. Under McPheeters' leadership the Chamber developed a Website, produced a promotional video and published a four-color booklet and was instrumental in such projects as the joint tourism efforts of Sikeston and Miner and the Sikeston Area Higher Education Center.

McPheeters was a chamber member and served as executive director in an interim basis before becoming the official director.

He was vice president and senior manager at AmeriFirst Bank in Sikeston from 1989 to 1995. He left the area to become senior reporter/anchor and director of special assignments unit for CBN news. He had worked with CBN's Continental Radio Network from 1981 to 1988.