Date: February 2, 2009
About: Travis Brown - Class of 1996

HQBD names Quincy Native Travis Brown as Full-time Executive Director

Source: Quincy Herald-Whig
Author: Steve Eighinger

The Historic Quincy Business District has a full-time executive director for the first time in nearly a year.

Quincy native Travis M. Brown, 31, has accepted the position, filling a void that had existed since March 2008 when Karol Ehmen resigned.

Brown, who has worked for the past eight years for the Boy Scouts of America in Wisconsin and Ohio, will begin his new duties around March 1, according to Chuck McClain, president of the HQBD Board of Directors.

No salary details were provided.

"It's not a requirement the executive director be a Quincy native, but it is a nice plus," McClain said. "Travis knows the city, and that will be beneficial. He's got a lot of enthusiasm."

The HQBD and Brown cemented the deal over the weekend, and McClain made the announcement Monday. Brown emerged from a field of more than 15 candidates in a process that began in earnest early last fall.

"I grew up in Quincy, and I still have family and lifelong friends there," Brown said. "My wife and I wanted to get back to the hometown feel that is there. I hope to retire in Quincy with HQBD."

Brown and his wife, Jennifer, are the parents of Cassidy, 5, and Andrew, 2.

Brown, a 2001 graduate of SIU-Edwardsville who attended Quincy High School, has a background in sales and marketing, fundraising, volunteer leadership, communications and event planning and operations.

Among Brown's first undertakings will be to head a membership drive for the HQBD.

"There are 600 businesses within the HQBD, and we have 54 members," McClain said.

Brown will immediately begin to establish more partnerships, he said.

"We need to let the businesses know what we do and better educate them about what we can do for them," he said. "I'm excited about all of the opportunities."

Overall reorganization of the executive director's position will be another early task for Brown. McClain said much of the day-to-day type of operations have slipped without an executive director.

Brown said many of the same skills he developed running Boy Scout councils in Wisconsin and Ohio will transfer to his new position.

"Running a non-profit is pretty much the same across the board," he said.

McClain also announced the HQBD will likely be moving from its current office inside the Western Catholic Building at 510 Maine to another site within the downtown area. He said he hopes to make an announcement in the near future, although no agreement on any specific site has yet been reached.

"The WCU people have been great to us, but we feel just need a site that is more visible, a storefront site," McClain said.

Deborah Hyde, an intern with the Great River Economic Development Foundation, has been working 20 hours a week as an interim staff assistant for the HQBD since October.


-- seighinger@whig.com/221-3377