SE MO Redi preparing to hire leader

SE MO Redi is preparing to make an important hire.

The economic development organization based in Cape Girardeau — formerly Cape Girardeau Area MAGNET — will be hiring a president/chief executive officer to guide its efforts.

What are those efforts? SE MO Redi focuses on four areas — attracting businesses to the area, developing talent and workforce, branding/marketing businesses and the region and improving regional resilience to improve the region’s future by aligning interests and strengthening the region through initiatives, collaboration and strategies.

The group’s board of directors and executive committee have worked diligently in recent years to bolster membership and investment. Since July, Shad Burner has been working with SE MO Redi as a management consultant, focusing on that growth. Tangibly, that work has doubled the organization’s annual operating budget, now more than $500,000.

The executive search is targeting top executives/senior leaders of economic development-focused organizations, including chambers of commerce; local, county or regional entities; and private-sector groups.

SE MO Redi hired an executive search firm, Pennsylvania-based Waverly Partners, to help with the process, and that group has identified several candidates for a search committee to consider. Burner noted the candidate pool is not final, and the search is continuing. Aaron Panton, regional president of The Bank of Missouri, is heading the committee, and he has a clear idea of what he wants in a leader.

"My hope would be that the next leader comes in and really takes the time to understand our region, understand the strategic plan that the board has established and start building relationships with the stakeholders from across the region," he recently told the Southeast Missourian.

While the executive search has been nationwide, the group is also considering local candidates, and there is merit in that formula.

We have confidence they will hire the best candidate possible, and we look forward to the leader’s work bearing fruit for Southeast Missouri.