It seemed, for that one moment that the University of Missouri and The Ohio State University might actually play one another for the BCS college football championship.

     It would have been the best of both worlds for Chung, the new CEO of the Missouri Partnership; an outreach and business recruitment initiative of the Hawthorn Foundation and the Department of Economic Development (DED). Chung is an Ohio native and a graduate of Ohio State University, yet he’s just been hired to promote Missouri to the world at large as an ideal place to start or grow a business. An OSU vs. MU championship would have allowed Chung to cheer for both teams and to celebrate the win of either team—guilt free. 

     But it was not to be.

     “Missouri’s still a winner, as far as I’m concerned,” says Chung. “Missouri is a beautiful, energetic, forward-looking, enterprise-friendly state. I’m happy and honored to be here. And I’m eager to start spreading the news that Missouri is open for business.”

     Chris Chung visited Ingram’s offices to chat about his new position and goals for the Missouri Partnership.

  

Tell us what the Missouri Partnership is all about.

Well our mission statement sums it up pretty succinctly.

Our purpose is to serve as the lead business recruitment and marketing organization for the state of Missouri, by working in close collaboration with all state, regional, and local entities actively engaged in economic development in order to successfully compete for global investment projects. 

 

What are your first priorities?

In my first 100 days on the job, my objective is to learn as much as possible about the product I’m responsible for promoting—the state of Missouri itself. I need to become intimately familiar with the relative advantages and disadvantages of doing business in Missouri. When businesses choose to locate here, I want to learn as much as I can about why they made that choice. And when we lose a business to another state, I need to know what exactly were the reasons why some other state seemed, to that organization, to be a better option for its needs. 

 

Then what?

Then we start crafting marketing plans for the eight industries that the DED has identified as crucial to the state’s long term growth and development. Those are agriculture, automotive, homeland security, transportation and logistics, life sciences, energy, financial services, and information technology. Missouri has considerable strengths in each of these areas that make us a highly attractive place for businesses within those industries to locate. 

 

Describe your personal leadership. What motivates you, personally and professionally?

Economic development specialists have the satisfaction of seeing the results of their work bring jobs and wealth to communities. That’s very motivating. It’s hard to describe what we do to somebody we might meet at a party, but the impact of what we do is real. It changes lives and communities for the better.