Ingram's August 2022

Rodney Crim St. Louis Partnership St. Louis Rodney Crim made early career stops in economic-development roles in Minneapolis and Chicago, but when he arrived in St. Louis in 2001, he found a place where he could make a long-term impact. That he’s done, most recently

Jeff Cook ARCO Construction/AEG St. Louis

Even as his company was wrapping up its third decade in business—with a massive, 10-figure revenue baseline—Jeff Cook had ARCO Construction in beast mode for growth, earning a spot on the Inc. 5000 last year. That’s a long way from where

leading the St. Louis Partnership, where he applies his skills to build a better business ecosystem. He does that by drawing from a deep understanding not only of the economic-development mission but the financing tools needed to achieve the vision—in addition to his economic developer certification, he’s certified in ED finance and previously was a certified public accountant. Since late 2019, he’s been president and CEO of the partnership, a regional organization established nearly a decade ago to help retain, expand and attract businesses to the city and county, and to drive new investment and job creation. Crim is also living a civic commitment with board and volunteer service, a philanthropic resume that includes a seat on the advisory board for Webster University’s George Herbert Walker School of Business; the International Economic Development Council, which establishes best practices for economic development; the finance and planning committee for St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the United Way of Greater St. Louis board; and the Urban Land Institute. Crim is a University of Minnesota graduate with an MBA from St. Thomas University.

he and co-founder Dick Arnoldy were when they broke ground on their first project in Chesterfield, Mo., back in 1992. Cook was just 31 at the time, but he knew he wanted to do more than just build things; he wanted to imbue his company with a purpose grounded in the right culture and the right core values. It’s hard to argue with that strategy: annual revenues for the design/build construction firm, specializing in senior housing, are now north of $2.5 billion. Cook wears another leadership hat as a principal of Aligned Equity Group, a private-equity company that feeds the construction business by bringing in investors with the senior living and multi-family communities ARCO is raising from the ground up as the sole contractor for all AEG facilities. Cook traces the company’s success to its prime directive: “Treat people fairly and do the right thing. “We are committed to building and sustaining a culture that supports diversity and inclusion,” the company says. “From recruiting, training, and hiring practices, to the selection of our subcontractors, we understand that the diversity of all those involved in the construction process enhances our ability to deliver the best solutions to our customers.”

Joan Daleo Ole Tyme Produce St. Louis

Stephen Davis Kraft Heinz Kirksville

Joan Daleo vividly recalls waking in the middle of the night as a youngster—we’re talking 3 a.m., even earlier—to help her father make his early rounds with his food-service company, Ole Tyme Produce, loading goods and running the wholesale

Can the biggest private employer in Kirksville, and one of the biggest in northeast Missouri—take on greater relevance to a community of 17,600 people? If you were to ask former Marine Stephan Davis, you might get

delivery route. As a young adult, that work would not be her first choice, but fate has a way of intervening. She moved to Portland for college, then went to work in mergers and acquisitions for a holding company with interests in energy and utilities. A search for deeper meaning in her work led her back home and the MBA program at Washington University, and she returned to Ole Tyme to help out, taking on expanded duties after her father had heart surgery in 2001. Over the years, she has built a program that brings to market all sorts of fresh and organic grocery items from growers within seven hours of St. Louis. As supply chain dynamics go, “where we’re headed is a good direction for the state,” Daleo says. “We are moving to a much more localized food system: harvest it today, box it tomorrow, and it’s literally on the shelves in two days or at a wholesale distribution center.” Thinking back to her exit interview in Portland way back when, she remembers saying she wants to change and affect people’s lives. “I didn’t know what that meant at 26,” Daleo says, “but that’s the beauty of time: I changed people’s lives by what I chose to do. From that perspective, I’ve come to know this is where I’m supposed to be.”

an emphatic: “Oorah!” Just this summer, the Kraft Heinz plant he manages in town reached an agreement with city officials to finance a $33.5 million expansion at the food-processing plant, a project that will improve storage facilities and improve overall efficiency with the purchase of new equipment. It will also cement that plant’s place in the production hierarchy, making it the first of 29 locations across North America to undertake digital analysis of production metrics. By the time that’s completed next June, the plant will have 50 more of the manufacturing jobs seen as so vital to the economies of Missouri’s rural areas. “This expansion is an important element of our long-term strategy to revolutionize the way we operate,” Davis said as the negotiations with the city wrapped up. It’s the second significant expansion to occur on Davis’s watch; Kraft Heinz conducted a major site upgrade after striking a $229 million deal with the city in 2016, bringing its employment capacity to nearly 500. Davis started there as a business unit manager in 2014, then assumed the leadership role two years later. Previous career stops included U.S. Pet Nutrition, Royal Canin, and Nestle.

58

I n g r a m ’ s

Ingrams.com

Regional Publications