Rob Dixon was promoted this month to executive vice president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, taking on many of the responsibilities of Brad Bodenhausen, who is splitting his time to oversee Missouri State University’s International Leadership and Training Center during its first year. Dixon, formerly the chamber’s vice president of business assistance, previously spent two years as executive director of the Hollister Area Chamber of Commerce. As a liaison between business and government, Dixon also is involved in public affairs, community development and events, and long-range planning.
Transition Time “I’m going to be taking more of an active role in our local public affairs efforts, which includes our local public policy task force, campaign management and development issues. Really, my main role is to serve as a liaison between business and government on a wide range of issues. I’ll be guiding the implementation of programs in our community development and special events areas and continuing to serve the needs of Springfield’s existing businesses. Finally, I’m going to be assisting our organization with long-range planning and special products.”
Business Assistance “Really my job was to work with companies already in Springfield on expansion. What we did was identify opportunities for them to grow and would help to eliminate any barriers to growth. You know, to work in economic development (during) the last three years has been an exciting and challenging time. We’re emerging from the most difficult economy in really the last 75 years. It was a challenging time to be in any business, and it was a challenging time to be in the business of business. … But I’m really proud of the chamber’s efforts to take care of our own during this time. We focused specifically on helping the businesses that were already here in our community. … Paul Mueller Co., Kraft, SRC, Tank Components Industries. All of these are companies that were already in our community and employing people and through some of (our) efforts, they have emerged through the recession and are growing.”
Helping Hollister “I was in Hollister a little more than two years (including a stint) as the director of community and economic development for the city of Hollister. … One of the largest projects I worked on there involved workforce development. In economic development, the single most important factor in determining a community’s potential for success is the quality of the workforce. If you don’t have that, nothing else matters. … So, we asked (Ozarks Technical Community College) what it would take to build a campus in Hollister. To make it work, the Hollister school district needed to join the OTC district, which required an election. We organized and managed the campaign, and the voters overwhelmingly responded. … As a result, OTC’s new Table Rock campus is going to open this August in Hollister.”
Career Development “I have always been interested in politics and public affairs. That’s why I chose to join the Marine Corps and chose the undergrad and graduate programs that I did. … Originally, I’m from St. Louis. My whole family, literally, my entire extended family, essentially grew up coming to Table Rock Lake. We would go camping and fishing. … With that as my background, I was looking for a job in the public affairs arena. When my family first moved to the area – we were looking for a house – and our Realtor just happened to be serving on the board for the Hollister Chamber of Commerce, which was doing a search for an executive director.”
Growing Springfield “A community is never finished. We have to constantly work at making improvements. Really, even if you want it to stay the same, you have to do something to make that happen just because politics and economics ebb and flow and are constantly changing. Springfield has so many assets that make it an ideal location for businesses – things like our workforce, infrastructure, the cost of doing business and lots of others. Our job is to make sure that those things stay as assets in our community. … That means we establish sound policies and we follow them. … That means we reinvest in ourselves. Springfield truly is a great place to live and do business, but we have to work hard to stay that way. It is not static.”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
