Featured Leader: Ron Kitchens

Because he came to Kalamazoo as something of a 'hired gun' to help pull the community out of the economic development doldrums, Ron Kitchens seemed like an unlikely candidate to call Kalamazoo home.

But three years after being lured away from Corpus Christi, TX, Kitchens -- with remnants of an Ozark drawl notwithstanding -- sounds as much like a local as anyone. He's even helped tell stories of Kalamazoo's historical successes, both through the national media and his new book, Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond. You can buy the book at Amazon.com

People also wondered how Kitchens' easy-going style would fly in the wake of the cloudburst that was Barry Broome. As a member of the National Speakers Association, Kitchens has won over audiences large and small around Kalamazoo while maintaining his focus on targets he's trying to attract from other parts of the country, and more recently abroad.

Kitchens took the Corpus Christi helm in 2000 as its first President and CEO. Prior to that, he served as president of the Moberly/Randolph Economic Development Corporation in Moberly, Missouri. He also helped facilitate the establishment of Moberly as the financial services leasing capital of the United States. He spearheaded the development of three business and industrial parks totaling 480 acres, and he raised $1.2 million in private sector funding. Under Kitchens leadership, the agency earned five major state economic development awards in 1998 and the 1999 Economic Development Marketing Program of the Year Award. Governor Mel Carnahan twice named the organization the Business Retention and Expansion Organization of the Year.

Prior to economic development, Kitchens served as field director for United States Senator John Danforth of Missouri. Kitchens began his public service at the age of 21, when he was elected and served six years as a City Councilman in his home town of Ozark, Missouri.