SPEAKER - OCTOBER 15, 2015

RANDY THELAN - GOCC

Randy is senior vice president of economic development for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and leader of the six-county Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership. Randy is from Michigan and has done Economic Development in that area prior to joining the Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Randy is shown above with his Rotary host, Doug Heim.

RANDY'S PRESENTATION

Randy was introduced by Doug Heim. The primary focus of his message was the effort to respond to the plans underway by ConAgra to move their headquarters to Chicago and to reduce their staff remaining in Omaha. The chamber's focus is on 1,000 people to keep their talent in Omaha. Their Twitter "hashtag" title #we keep talent. applies to their effort. The Chamber has called meetings of the area's larger employers to identify employment opportunities available for salary levels of $80,000 and above. 176 companies have connected with the ConAgra employees so far and hiring is already taking place. This effort has a high priority for Randy and his staff and the Board of Directors of the Chamber are fully committed to find alternate employment.