This fall, five civic groups in St. Louis announced an unusual move within this fractured region: Rather than guarding their separate fiefdoms, they were merging. What Better Together failed to do for local governments, civic organizations (and the corporate leaders who fund them) had themselves achieved.
And so this January, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, AllianceSTL, Civic Progress, Downtown STL Inc. and Arch to Park will officially become The new entity will focus on 鈥渃reating jobs, expanding equity and improving St. Louis鈥� global competitiveness.鈥�
Its new CEO, Jason Hall, said on Tuesday鈥檚 St. Louis on the Air that Greater St. Louis Inc. aims to answer key questions for St. Louis, namely:
鈥淲hat is the vision of where we鈥檙e going economically? What is that shared vision of how we get there so we can create more and higher-quality jobs and reduce barriers so more St. Louisans have access to them?鈥�
He added, 鈥淕reater St. Louis Inc. represents the first step in a longer journey to bring that together modeled off best in class, what high-growth regions around the country are doing. And having that unified voice, a shared agenda, and acting as one metropolitan region, anchored by its urban core, is the starting point for that. And this gets us back on that track.鈥�
Hall is an attorney who previously worked in economic development for Gov. Jay Nixon and spent the last two years running Arch to Park. Hall co-founded the upstart company after leaving the St. Louis Regional Chamber, where he鈥檇 been a vice president. He he鈥檇 become convinced the chamber needed 鈥渁 higher level of intensity.鈥�
Hall acknowledged that his leadership may represent a shock to staffers who haven鈥檛 been quite so driven. 鈥淚 am an intense individual,鈥� he admitted. 鈥淏ut at the end of the day, this is not driven by a personal agenda. I love this community. It frustrates me, as it does a lot of other people, that we鈥檙e not reaching our potential. I always said if I had the chance, I鈥檇 lead by example 鈥� and I am all in.鈥�
Hall noted that pulling off the merger relied on a lot of earnest conversations behind the scenes, not a top-down plan. Organizers had to be 鈥渉umble enough to listen.鈥�
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 the healthy way we need to do things in St. Louis,鈥� he added. 鈥淚鈥檓 tired of a decade where there鈥檚 sort of hatched plans and you鈥檙e not sure where they came from and where is the conversation occurring. You have to do these things in a much more open way like that, and really listen to people.鈥�
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . The audio engineer is .
