As its current leader says goodbye, the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield is closing in on the group’s next CEO.
The application deadline to succeed 11-year CEO Matt Morrow was Nov. 9, and a selection committee is conducting interviews with the top applicants through Thanksgiving, said committee Chairman Brett Godfrey of Built by Brett.
Last month, Morrow, who has served at the helm of the 375-member organization since January 2001,
announced his decision to take a job as executive vice president of the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders in Birmingham, Ala., effective Dec. 3. Today is his last day with the Springfield organization.
HBA officials expect Morrow’s successor to be in place by the first of the year, and they’re mum on potential candidates out of the 14 applicants.
Homebuilder Godfrey said he expects the group would make an offer to the next CEO by the end of November, and that individual should be presented to the HBA board for formal approval at its Dec. 11 meeting.
“We’ve had a good response, and that makes the job challenging,” Godfrey said. “Matt (left) some big shoes to fill. As a committee, we don’t look at this like we’ll be able to replace Matt, but as another chapter that is opening up in our association’s history.”
Godfrey said candidates with fundraising and legislative experience would have an edge. Under Morrow, the HBA has been actively involved in regulatory, legislative, political and legal advocacy – at local, state and federal levels. The group, which employs six, was named
Business Advocate of the Year in Springfield Business Journal’s 2012 Economic Impact Awards. Before joining HBA, Morrow worked four years as U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft’s press secretary and director of his southwest Missouri district office.
“Certainly, we don’t want to lose any ground that we’ve gained in the political arena,” Godfrey said, pointing to the HBA’s political action committee, the Coalition to Build a Better Tomorrow. The PAC has raised and contributed roughly $250,000 since its 2001 inception.
Godfrey would neither confirm nor deny whether state Rep. Shane Schoeller, who lost his bid for Missouri secretary of state in the Nov. 6 election, had applied for the position. Schoeller, a Willard resident whose Missouri House term is up in January, did not return calls for comment. According to Schoeller’s member biography on
House.Mo.gov and LinkedIn profile, he worked under Morrow as the local HBA’s director of government affairs 2004–06.[[In-content Ad]]
