After spending his entire life in the Decatur area, Tim Dudley is now ready to begin bringing businesses to the Danville area.
Dudley officially began his new position as president and CEO of Vermilion Advantage on Monday. He succeeds Vicki Haugen, who led economic development in Danville for 36 years before her death 11 months ago.
In deciding to leave Decatur, Dudley says he realized Danville and Decatur had the same challenges such as the loss of major automotive factories (GM and Firestone).
“We dealt with a lot of those problems in Decatur, and are on the upswing, and I just thought, ‘Why can’t I take that to Danville and try to do some good here?'”
Dudley says he has been a part of major business coming to Decatur. He helped land the Farm Progress Show in 2005, aided the development of a $65 million Community Care Campus, and brought an intermodal railroad port to the Soy City, which he says could be implemented in Danville as well.
“It beats the traffic that you have to go through when you’re in the Chicago area. We’re able to get goods and services out a lot faster, and I’m not saying that’s something that couldn’t be done here. That’s something we’re going to be looking into.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges to business. While many people think of new business as a key focus of economic development, Dudley says it is the current businesses that need the biggest support.
“What people don’t realize is that 70 percent of your growth comes from businesses that are already here. So we have to do a good job of working with our businesses that are already here and helping them expand, and retaining business and retaining employees.”
Dudley says he has been spending his first week on the job meeting with business owners and local community leaders in Danville and around Vermilion County.
