Staying One Step
Ahead of Change Chamber CEO Don Willie Strives to Honor Tradition While Championing Innovation By David Dudley When St. George Area Chamber of Commerce (SGACC) President and CEO Don Willie was considering a move from Salt Lake City to St. George, Utah, he called Tim Anderson, attorney and shareholder at Kirton McConkie, to ask for advice. “Tim said that if I took a job in St. George, I better know what my next move after that job would be,” Willie said. It wasn’t the advice Willie expected. He was being considered for a position as the executive director of the Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Dixie State University (DSU). His experience and background were perfect for the position, but he had spent the better part of the previous decade building a career on the Wasatch Front, first working as a policy analyst and advisor for Governor Gary R. Herbert and then serving as managing director at the World Trade Center Utah. Still, Willie wondered whether it would be a good move. It was 2018, about two years before he would be invited to apply for the role of President and CEO of the chamber. “I didn’t know it then,” he said, “but everything was falling into place.”
Atwood Innovation Plaza Dr. Kyle Wells, dean of the College of Business, interviewed Willie for the position at DSU. If hired, Willie would need to help secure funding for Atwood Innovation Plaza (AIP), oversee the renovation of the 50,000-square-foot East Elementary School, and then help to establish it as a southern Utah entrepreneurship hub. “We hired Don to do an impossible task,” Wells said. “And when we hired him, we didn’t know the end from the beginning.” The task seemed impossible, but in the short period of eighteen months, Don secured the funding, renovated the facility, created the state’s largest public maker space, and established programming to support a growing start-up community. At that time, Sylvia Bradshaw was the director of Sponsored Programs at DSU. Like Wells, she had fond memories of East Elementary School, which opened in 1955. She and Willie collaborated on several applications for federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants. The funds were earmarked for activities and equipment for AIP. The plaza was named for TrueHearing CEO Lindsay Atwood, who donated $750,000 in matching funds to the project. Lindsay passed just days before the facility was dedicated. Bradshaw said Willie provided energy and momentum to the AIP project when he joined the team, rallying local leaders behind it. “He also ensured that everyone saw the vision,” she said. “He honored the journey of the building, those of us who were working on the project, and the community.” As an example, Bradshaw described a photo that was taken to commemorate the closeout report for the AIP team. “There are nineteen people in that photo,” she said, “and only one of them is a woman.” Bradshaw paused there. “Don made sure that I was in that picture because he wanted to ensure that I was recognized for the work I put into that project. He genuinely cares about the people and the community.” Willie’s work with AIP didn’t stop with the completion of the project. Wells explained that the EDA asked the AIP team to be part of a new university program that would make DSU the primary contact for the region. “We had a very short time to prepare it,” Wells said. “I was skeptical and didn’t think we had time to pursue it. Don put many long hours into a proposal that proved to be successful. We continue to run that program today.” Continued on Page 34 32 Southern Utah Business Magazine :: Summer 2022
