LaDrina Wilson addresses a Quad Cities Chamber annual meeting during her 18-month tenure as CEO. CREDIT QUAD CITIES CHAMBER
After an eventful 18 months as Quad Cities Chamber CEO, LaDrina Wilson is focused on new challenges. She can do so, chamber colleagues and staff say, knowing that she left an indelible mark on the organization and the region she served. Ms. Wilson took the helm in August of 2022 at a challenging time for […]
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After an eventful 18 months as Quad Cities Chamber CEO, LaDrina Wilson is focused on new challenges. She can do so, chamber colleagues and staff say, knowing that she left an indelible mark on the organization and the region she served.Ms. Wilson took the helm in August of 2022 at a challenging time for a chamber that had seen the departure of key top leaders including former President & CEO Paul Rumler and an unsuccessful search to replace him. When Ms. Wilson’s chamber contract expired on Jan. 31, 2024, she handed off a re-energized organization to new President & CEO Peter Tokar III.“LaDrina’s unwavering dedication, leadership, and steadfast commitment to the business community has left an indelible mark on the Quad Cities Chamber,” Mara Downing, the chamber’s current board president, told the QCBJ.“LaDrina navigated complex challenges with grace and wisdom while advancing the Quad Cities Chamber’s mission,” the vice president of global brand management and corporate communications for John Deere added. “She fostered a culture of collaboration and inclusivity while empowering those around her to reach new heights of success. On the heels of the COVID pandemic, her strategic vision propelled the business community and organization forward and for that I will be forever grateful.”Brian Irby, the chamber’s chief strategy officer, joined the Wilson-led chamber staff in April. “Seeing LaDrina work as the Quad Cities Chamber’s CEO was fantastic,” he told the QCBJ.“I had the unique experience of seeing this first as an active chamber member and then as a part of her leadership team. Not only did her leadership help stabilize the chamber as a whole, but she truly has helped build a better foundation for our organization and the QC region to succeed for years to come.”Filling key posts and improving the talented staff’s morale were among Ms. Wilson’s priorities when she inked the contract that took her from a member of the chamber board to the organization’s CEO. Upgrades also included enhancing the chamber’s clunky old business systems “so that the staff felt more supported. But also so that they can more effectively do their work and deploy resources for the members in the most effective way,” Ms. Wilson said. She also urged them to trust and use their talents and to be creative and she boosted mentoring opportunities.
Business activity on rise
Staff delivered, Ms. Wilson said. “We had a tremendous amount of activity around business development and growth, especially in the last six months. … I don’t think that’s by chance. I think that’s because we have a talented group of individuals who are constantly, constantly hitting the pavement for business retention and business attraction.”Downtown placemaking is another chamber success story. Just last year, the chamber launched the Rock Island Downtown Alliance in partnership with the City of Rock Island. It’s the chamber’s third downtown placemaking partnership and it’s already busy making downtown Rock Island streets cleaner and safer. Credit for that goes to Alliance Executive Director Jack Cullen, Ms. Wilson said.“You’re really not going to find a more dedicated, excited and energized person,” she added. “He loves the job and he’s been patient. He’s taken a lot of arrows. I’ve had plenty of times when I wanted to be like mama bear and he’s like, ‘We got this.’”Mr. Cullen said Ms. Wilson played “an integral role in the formation of the Rock Island Downtown Alliance and believed in its potential to strengthen livability and quality of place in one of our region’s city centers.”He added, “during the process of establishing the Downtown Special Service Area, the primary funding source for ongoing improvements, LaDrina’s leadership helped ensure a mutually beneficial partnership was created for the chamber, City of Rock Island and our downtown community.”
Focus on Next Generation
Ms. Wilson also is proud of chamber talent retention and attraction and leadership building efforts, including a new minority business summit that will provide mentorship and follow up, and a new Student Success Symposium that will include 250 young people later this spring.Building that next generation of leaders is more essential than ever for the region’s future, she told the QCBJ.“As we see more and more mergers and acquisitions, there is a strong potential for the circle of influence to not be here in this area,” she said. That means the QC needs to prepare for a time when the top executives of businesses “are now in Des Moines, or Indianapolis, or the Chicagoland areas and they don’t understand us as a Quad Cities.” That will mean fewer leaders with the authority and the respect of their organizations and the history in the region to be change-makers and investors in the community. “We have to be careful and not take for granted the work that some of the folks who are going to be nearing retirement in the next couple years, or that strong foundation that was laid for us,” she said. It also means that the QC “cannot take for granted the investment in developing that next generation of leaders who can be the influencers and decision-makers and preparing them to be the types of leaders that not only are community-minded but also have the industry expertise to someday be a leader of an organization who signs the front of the check and not the back.” One way the chamber is seeking to fill that void is Generation Next, a developing leader training program that shows 40 emerging Quad Cities leaders how they can make a difference.
Ready to write new chapter
Diversity, equity and inclusion also are top of mind for Ms. Wilson, the founder of Iman Consulting. And she plans to continue her work to show that DEI makes good business sense. “Communities looking to grow are unwise to look in the same places they have in the past,” she said. “It’s not going to come from an aging demographic that we’re going to grow. It’s going to come from a younger demographic, which is increasingly diverse, and it’s going to come from immigration.”Ms. Wilson’s contract as chamber CEO was finite by design. Going forward she will continue the DEI work she does through her Iman Consulting. Then there is her critical role as lead facilitator for the Clean River Advisory Council. It’s a diverse group of individuals working to find ways to use a $637,000 investment by the Walton Family Foundation to craft a better, more inclusive vision for the Mississippi River and fund projects to help make it happen.But that isn’t all she’s focusing on. She said she is at work on a new project, for example, but isn’t ready to share any details. Other things may also one day be in the works.“Anybody who knows me, knows I don’t stand still,” she laughed.
