When native east sider Gary Thompson was hired as the executive director of the Oregon Economic Development Foundation in the spring of 2006, the Veterans Glass City Skyway was still under construction.

“We have a great bridge being built,” Thompson said. “It’s going to bring a lot of business to Navarre Avenue, even through it’s been a painful process.”

Five years, later Thompson is moving on. On Sept. 1, Thompson began his transition to the Regional Growth Partnership where he will be director of JobsOhio for the Northwest Ohio region.

JobsOhio is a private economic development agency formed by the state that is taking over responsibilities of the Department of Economic Development. Thompson’s role will be to coordinate JobsOhio functions for 19 Northwest Ohio counties.

“The state under Governor (John) Kasich has been trying to revamp economic development services and they came up with the JobsOhio model. They went and found six regional partners because they want to push economic development decision-making down to the lowest local level that they can get to, so in Northwest Ohio they really picked the Regional Growth Partnership to work with as their local partner,” Thompson said.

“When the Regional Growth Partnership started to understand that this isn’t going to just be pushing paper, they really wanted a program here that’s going to entail working day-to-day with county directors and local companies and with Columbus,” Thompson continued.

“What complicated matters is, there is a very aggressive timeline. So I got a call from (RGP director) Dean Monske where he said, ‘Hey, I’m not sure how this all shakes out. I think I need someone to do business with. I think you are the right guy. Are you interested?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m interested. Let’s talk more.’”

OEDF President Timothy G. Pedro wrote in a letter to membership, “Mr. Thompson will still be working on behalf of the Oregon Economic Development Foundation on projects, initiatives, and administrative duties. We anticipate that Mr. Thompson will still be an integral part of our monthly membership meetings for the foreseeable future.”

Pedro notes that Oregon is within the RGP’s service territory and Thompson will continue to reside in Oregon, where he has lived since 2001.

“In other words, the successes of Oregon are successes for the region,” Pedro wrote. “Mr. Thompson will continue to work diligently on Oregon’s behalf.”

Pedro told The Press, “Actually, I think it’s a win-win for everybody, including Gary.”

Thompson said, “That’s the best part of it. I’ll still have the opportunity to work on those kinds of (Oregon) issues.”

$700 million in investment

Under Thompson’s leadership, the OEDF helped generate over $700 million in business investment and witnessed over 500 new jobs created in Oregon.

“Personally, I would like to thank Gary for the energy and effort he has put forward to help Oregon’s economy grow and wish him the best as he now focuses his talents on the entire region,” Pedro said.

“If you take a look at some of the businesses that have grown and that have maintained, who can put a pencil to every single accomplishment? One thing about economic development, keep in mind, is to foster an environment growth. Does that mean Gary Thompson went to some corporate office in Timbuktu and said, ‘Bring your company to Oregon, Ohio?’ Maybe he did, but the biggest thing is to bring the cause, environment, and enthusiasm for job retention and job growth. That’s important for any community,” Pedro said.

Thompson said, “Probably the thing I’m proudest of is building those relationships with local businesses where they feel comfortable about a project or a problem and moving things forward. All in all, I’m probably most proud of the ability to help companies grow.

“Somebody would say, ‘I’ve been trying to sell to a local company for a long time. I can’t get a meeting or an appointment to understand what the value profit initiative is to help them do business with St. Charles Hospital or BP or Signature Real Estate or something like that. So to help connect the business members to other businesses and other business members, I think helps everybody’s business grow.”

Thompson came to the OEDF from Gillette Associates in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where he served as director of business development, identifying new market opportunities, targeting prospects, and securing relationships and business initiatives. He also worked for SSOE Inc. in Toledo, and as a sales and marketing leader, provided architectural commercial services in Northwest Ohio and nationwide. 

Thompson holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and is a licensed certified public accountant. After attending college at the University of Toledo and his years at SSOE, Thompson was involved in the automotive and commercial sectors in his position at Farmington Hills. At the OEDF, Thompson replaced Monske, who moved on to work with the City of Toledo.

Thompson, a 1988 Waite High School graduate raised in East Toledo, like to recall former businesses on Navarre Avenue that do not exist today, such as Zip’s Ice Cream and Godfather’s Pizza.

“I like businesses on Navarre Avenue better today than the ones we had 20 to 30 years ago.” Thompson said. He will miss his Oregon office, he said.

“I will cherish the friendships I’ve made and the working relationships,” Thompson said. “Everybody has a unique story. It’s really fun to help people do the things they need to do on a daily basis.

“It’s absolutely a learning process to learn all the ins and outs of county programs that apply to different people and different programs and then to learn how communities view development. Some people really like it, some people really want it but not here — so it’s to find that right mix of what really fits for that community and to really serve its ultimate needs as well,” Thompson added.

Pedro said the OEDF board has yet to begin the process on how to move forward on Thompson’s replacement.

“For the short term, Gary is going to obviously be very much involved in the transition period. That transition period is to be defined. It could be two weeks, it could be two months. The fact that you have two gentlemen who know the business, Dean and Gary, they are able to acknowledge that there is going to be some needed time to transition from one into the other,” Pedro said.

“One way to describe it is, he (Thompson) is actually going to be involved as a consultant because there are some things that are in various stages of planning and various stages of negotiations and discussions that we don’t want to disrupt those,” Pedro continued.

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