The reorganization of the CEO Roundtable into the CEO Council provides a fresh vision and new priorities for our region.
Greater Peoria has amazing leaders who take pride in our region and are willing to invest their talent and treasure to guide us to a more prosperous future. When these leaders collaborate, they can accomplish a lot. This is evidenced by the success of the CEO Roundtable, part of The Heartland Partnership family of companies.
As you likely know, The Heartland Partnership and related organizations are reorganizing and refocusing efforts to better align with the new regional vision for economic development. One change, as suggested by ViTal Economy, is to emphasize our role “in rallying leaders around big ideas; managing complex projects; and advocacy for issues and managing investments that improve and grow the regional economy.” We have taken that suggestion to heart and are restructuring the CEO Roundtable so that we can accomplish even more.
Some Roundtable History…
The CEO Roundtable was formed in 2002 as part of the Heartland Foundation—a 501(c)(3) organization within The Heartland Partnership family of companies—to advance major projects and engage regional leaders from different industries on critical issues that impact the entire region. It was comprised of top-level executives from nearly 50 of the region’s largest and most influential companies. The organization has a long list of accomplishments, including construction of the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center and the Cancer Research Center at UICOMP, as well as the successful passage of the Build the Block museum referendum.
Beginning this month, it’s getting a facelift. The organization’s name has changed to the CEO Council, and it is now comprised of annual dues-paying investors from the private sector. There are new goals, a fresh vision for the future, and new members. The CEO Council brings impactful leaders together to share their visions, work on strategies and formulate initiatives focused on developing, growing and moving our community towards a better tomorrow. It will form partnerships among organizations, communities, businesses and people to create common objectives and keep Greater Peoria moving forward.
We recently sat down with 25+ regional business leaders, as well as current and former investors, to prioritize the functions of the new CEO Council. They determined the top four priorities to be: large-scale regional projects, the Regional Economic Scorecard, regional branding and Peoria NEXT. There are others that may be added to the program in time.
- Large-scale regional projects. A number of large-scale community projects would not have come to fruition without the backing of the CEO Roundtable at The Heartland Partnership, including the UICOMP Cancer Research Center, Quest Charter Academy and the Build the Block referendum. The new CEO Council will continue to provide the visioning, backing, support, championing and financing to bring large-scale projects like these to fruition.
- Regional Economic Scorecard. In order to remain a leader in the Midwest, Greater Peoria needed a baseline set of measurements to better understand how the region performs in comparison to others. This was a critical program for the region and continues to be widely used and celebrated.
- Regional branding. This is the task of launching a brand for all of Greater Peoria to better market the region. Not only can the regional brand be used to create a general sense of location/geography for those outside of the region, it can be used to create a personality for the region to attract businesses and talent.
- Peoria NEXT. This 11-year-old organization is focused on attracting technology commercialization opportunities. It is focusing its resources and energy on four main areas of concentration that have a commercial future and play to the strengths of this region in terms of skills and abilities. They are: medical, energy, food products/safety and manufacturing. Peoria NEXT will closely monitor developments in each of these fields, looking for viable applications.
A dedicated group of leaders like the CEO Council will help to create a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem and business climate. All private-sector businesses and organizations that commit to an annual minimum investment are invited to be a part of the CEO Council. Your involvement, influence and investment have helped Greater Peoria receive high marks in numerous measures of economic health and regional vibrancy in the past, and you can help us continue on this positive path. iBi
