2011 Forty under 40
Images taken from the Tribune Business Weekly, May 30, 2011
Yesterday I attended the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce’s Forty under 40 luncheon at The Gillespie Center in South Bend. I was there as Chairman of the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC). Jennifer Laurent, MCEDC Executive Director, was one of the honorees. I was pleased to see that Andrea Cook of The Midas Center in Plymouth was also there as an honoree. MCEDC is working to increase our regional ties and the recognition of these two influential women from our community can only help this effort.
Tracy Graham, former Notre Dame football player and current South Bend entreprenuer, was the keynote speaker. He gave a motivational speech on the future of South Bend, refuting some of the negative connotations left by the Newsweek article naming South Bend #8 among America’s dying cities. The University of Notre Dame, the convergances of transportation nodes and the high speed internet access provided by the Metronet were among a few of the positives he listed. For better or worse, regionally our fortunes are somewhat linked to those of South Bend.
Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County and the Tribune Business Weekly for recognizing two of Marshall County’s bright young women. Now we need to press the honorees to continue their efforts and not rest on their laurels. Jennifer? Andrea? We’re waiting! What are you going to do next to put Marshall County in the spotlight and on the map? Best wishes for future successes!
2 Responses to 2011 Forty under 40
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By Andrea Cook June 4, 2011 - 8:22 pm
Glad you asked Kevin!
Since relocating our family to Culver from Chicago five years ago, I’ve been diligently working to put Marshall County on the map. Here is a punch list of some of the activities I have been working on to do that:
– As a trailing spouse, I searched for a job to utilize my 10 years of professional marketing experience. When none could be found within a 100 mile radius, I created a job for myself by restarting my consultancy The Midas Center.
– In the past 18 months since restarting my business, I’ve hired local workforce and given them training in the marketing field. In fact, my company was recognized as one of the finalists in Indiana Chamber’s Employer of the Year 2010 for the internship program we provide.
– My husband and I purchased a downtown property in Plymouth where we continue to invest in its restoration of its historical integrity. Plymouth is my husband’s hometown and he is committed to the downtown and its growth. Its charm was one of the main attractions that countered one example of brain drain and brought us back to the community.
– We provide Co-Working in our office. It is, an innovative way to provide synergy and productivity for independent professionals who can become members and share work space. This brings people downtown. Also, we have attracted many professionals from prospects, to clients to students in our educational training programs to downtown Plymouth who have traveled from Valporaiso, South Bend, Warsaw, Elkhart and Chicago. People are interested in seeing our co working space and intrigued by the surrounding low cost of properties. I have a vision to attract professional consulting type service providers to our county. I’m not sure this is part of a collective vision or not.
– (this one is a biggie!) I have created a new company called IHEART Green Media. It is an eco-friendly business that creates online media platforms to give local businesses many promotional benefits including a free webpages, blog posts, access to a community calendar, etc. These online community sites are called iHEART Plymouth and iHEART Culver and they help build community and quality of life as well as stimulate economic development. They provide businesses other alternatives than traditional means of costly newspaper advertising and time intensive promotions. The information provided on these sites not only reach local readers on all the good things going on, they also share the information regionally to those readers following iHEART on other social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. The new maps to be found on arent on paper, they are from the digital traffic as people use search engines and social media to make major decisions.
– This is the second year since the Women Advisory Group was launched. This is a networking group that reaches out to likeminded entrepreneurial business women and provides support, discussions, presentations and networking opportunities.
– I am committed to my local town of Culver. I was the co-chair for a Tri Kappa fundraiser that sold over $14,000 in revenue for a first time event. The organization is currently pursuing its second event of Chairs for Charity. I am also committed to my position on the Culver ReDevelopment Commission board where I am on my second term.
To be very honest Kevin, I have had a lot of opposition in many of these endeavors. I continue to pursue activities that make an impact, however, for real change to happen, to put Marshall County on the map like you mentioned, it takes more than two women like Jennifer and me to step up to the plate. It takes the village to make the village change, grow, develop. The biggest challenge I see is that lack of support to leaders. I appreciated the recognition from the group of distinguished leaders yesterday during the reception. I was happy to know you attended to show your support. Thank you for continually sharing the support that you do and I appreciate your enthusiasm for growth.
Sincerely,
Andrea Cook
By 40/40 Notice :: Easterday Construction June 20, 2011 - 2:49 pm
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