OVERVIEW

Greater St. Louis, Inc. (GSL) is an economic development organization and the center point of civic infrastructure that serves the 15-county, bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area with a population of approximately 2.8 million people.  GSL has a forward-looking vision for St. Louis’ economic future and makes inclusive growth and prosperity a leading long-term priority for the metropolitan area.  GSL drives its priorities through the full diversity of St. Louis’ business leaders, a cohesive structure, a professional staff and a unified voice.

LEADERSHIP PROFILE

The CEO of GSL must be a dynamic, high-energy, results-driven and entrepreneurial person who can successfully lead a comprehensive economic growth plan.  The incumbent is charged with integrating functions, people and a unified culture to lead a high-performing team.  The culture and team development within the organization must be a top priority of the CEO.

The leader must be passionate about economic development, innovative in approach, and have an unwavering focus on excellence.  They must be fearless and have credibility, visibility and gravitas to convene diverse, and sometimes conflicting, private and public stakeholders and be able to motivate those stakeholders toward shared outcomes.

The CEO must be driven by values and known to be an honest broker, credible and willing to do what is right to achieve the inclusive growth outcomes.  The leader must have the humility to admit mistakes and learn from them as well as sharing credit with others involved in the efforts of economic development both inside and outside the organization.

Success must be achieved through living the values of the organization, building and implementing a comprehensive economic growth plan and being accountable to that plan through ongoing reporting and communicating at an exceptional level with leaders and individuals throughout the region.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

Responsible for the overall administration and management direction for GSL, the CEO will report directly to the Chairperson and Board of Directors comprised of 30-40 diverse individuals, most of whom are Chairpersons or CEOs of both public and private companies, research universities, and other major institutions.

The CEO must successfully perform the following essential duties and responsibilities:

• Align the Board, staff, external stakeholders, and the community around a vision, strategic agenda, long-term goals, and short-term objectives to achieve inclusive economic growth within St. Louis.
• Foster solid relationships with, and gain the confidence of, the Board and other investors in driving transformational change to achieve economic growth; ensure that there is a clear correlation between investment and community impact.
• Develop and lead collaborative economic development strategies that advance GSL’s inclusive growth agenda.
• Effectively collaborate and/or advocate with other organizations within the community as well as public officials at the local, state, and federal levels to advance GSL’s priorities. Sharing credit for successes as appropriate.
• Oversee and implement best-in-class systems to manage the talent, finances, resources, strategies and reputation of GSL.
• Understand and translate industry sectors, market dynamics, business creation, and governmental entities into actionable strategies to problem solve and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
• Engage the business community to build the capacity of GSL to implement an inclusive growth agenda.
• Develop and manage the organization’s budget against board priorities, build a comprehensive plan covering each strategic initiative and report on progress regularly using agreed upon measures of success.
• Secure contributions from both businesses and individuals, as well as grants to fund the work of GSL and ensure both its short-term and long-term financial health.
• Ensure GSL maintains the highest ethical standards of business and civic leadership with whomever it does business.

COMPETENCIES 

 The CEO must demonstrate the following competencies:

• Visionary Thinker – Translates forward-looking abstract ideas and concepts into action. Communicates the vision in a persuasive and exciting way to motivate others to commit to the vision.  Displays passion and optimism.
• People Focused Leadership – Utilizes good principles of leadership with a strong focus on people. Builds the team and focuses on talent.  Creates a culture of trust that drives retention and allows individuals to thrive while contributing to team efforts.
• Team Building – Has the charisma and credibility to attract exceptional talent to the professional staff. Has the compassion, empathy and effective communication skills to retain top talent.  Ensures people know their roles and allows them to do their job in a comfortable, professional environment.  Is comfortable delegating responsibility and details, as well as giving credit to the team as appropriate.
• Strategic Thinking – Develops innovative strategies to achieve organizational goals. Understands strengths and weaknesses of a situation.  Analyzes markets and competition.  Identifies external threats and opportunities.  Adapts to changing conditions.
• Analysis & Decision Making – Understands large and complex economic development initiatives that may extend over many years. Has executive, strategic and long-term critical thinking capacity.  Is flexible and open to ideas, opinions and perspectives.  Is able to proactively make judgments based on data, experience, and intuition.  Anticipates the impact of behaviors, actions and decisions on different stakeholders.
• Achievement Focus – Sets and achieves challenging goals. Reports on progress in a consistent, objectively measurable manner. Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles.  Measures self against standard of excellence.  Recognizes and acts on opportunities.  Takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
• Impact & Influence – Achieves win-win solutions. Addresses divergent viewpoints.  Displays ability to influence key decisionmakers with negotiating skills necessary to get successful outcomes.  Pursues and wins support for ideas.
• Communication – Speaks persuasively and knowledgably about economic development and St. Louis. Listens to stakeholders.  Adjusts message and delivery style to accommodate a diverse range of audiences both internally and externally.
• Collaboration – Ability to work with diverse and divergent interests to achieve positive outcomes. Comfortable working with and through others.  Strong intuitive understanding of team cohesion, non-verbal communication, group dynamics and interpersonal relationships.  Give credit where credit is due.  Demonstrate humility.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

The CEO must possess a combination of education and experience that enables them to successfully lead the organization and fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the role.

COMPENSATION

Salary will be competitive and commensurate with experience and qualifications plus benefits.

APPLICATION PROCESS

This position is open until filled. Please submit your application as soon as possible to ensure you are considered for this position. Upon receipt, resumes and cover letter will be screened in relation to the criteria outlined in this brochure. Candidates selected for interview will be contacted by Jorgenson Pace.  For consideration, please submit a cover letter résumé to Todd Jorgenson at GSL@jorgensonpace.com

REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND CHECK

Candidates will be checked extensively for background and references.  Once strong mutual interest has been established, candidates are asked to provide a list of references that should include, but not be limited to, a supervisor, a peer, a development client and a subordinate, as applicable.  Candidates will be asked to sign an authorization to release information for the purpose of the background investigation, which will include education, social media background, credit check, criminal and driving records.  Should an offer be extended before to the completion of these checks, the offer will be made contingent.