Patrick McKeehan has spent a career trying to get businesses to come here, stay put and grow.
Now, he has his eye on a cluster of energy companies that he hopes might, with some nudging, grow into something big for the Metro East area.
He's thinking about how the high-tech companies that serve Scott Air Force Base can be persuaded to deepen their footprint in the region.
And he's trying to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to back off. FEMA's plans to decertify the levees threatens business in the American Bottoms, he says.
McKeehan is executive director of the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois. It's a group made up of business, local government and education officials and its aim is to grow jobs and the economy in Metro East.
He spent most of his 25-year career on the Missouri side of the river, working in economic development for the state and the Regional Commerce and Growth Association.
He directed the long, and ultimately futile, efforts to retain the Ford and Chrysler plants as director of the Governor's Ford Hazelwood Task Force and the St. Louis Regional Automotive Partnership.
He crossed the Mississippi in 2006 to become director of the leadership council.