Q&A with Justin Groenert with Evansville Regional Economic Partnership
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The Evansville Regional Economic Partnership, or E-REP, recently welcomed Justin Groenert as its new chief strategy officer.
The Evansville native’s previous roles include vice president of public policy at the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and director of government relations and public policy at the Southwest Indiana Chamber.
Groenert spoke with Inside INdiana Business about coming back to his hometown and his passion for completing the I-69 bridge between Evansville and Henderson, Kentucky.
Tell me about your work with U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and former U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis and U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon.
When I was growing up, it was one of those pipe dreams to go to Washington and get to spend some time on Capitol Hill. I never thought it would happen, but, lo and behold, my career path started early on Capitol Hill.
I was fortunate enough to intern for Sen. McConnell in the fall of 2004. I got to see how a Senate office worked. Sen. McConnell was always very good to the interns; we had real jobs in that office. I was collecting clips. I was writing stuff for the senator. There were catch-alls. You had to go through a process to make sure you weren’t just out in left field. But that was a great eye-opening experience.
I was fortunate enough to work for Ron Lewis for four years in Kentucky’s 2nd district. I’m from Evansville originally, but I went to Western Kentucky University. I was very fortunate to work for the member of Congress who represented Bowling Green. I saw the world of national politics at a time when it was probably a little less divisive, a little less controversial, slightly more my speed than it is now. But it was a great experience.
Coming back home in 2010 and helping get Congressman Bucshon elected and then to work for him was a dream come true. Being able to come home was great. I’m not sure I ever thought that would happen, but he was the right guy at the right time, and it was an amazing opportunity, and we were fortunate enough to have a really good night. That started off a pretty amazing 14-year career for him in Washington and got me planted back in Evansville.
You also worked for the Southwest Indiana Chamber.
I spent five years doing that. And then [Indiana Treasurer Kelly Mitchell] called, and when a statewide elected official reaches out and says, “Hey, I’ve got an opportunity,” you have to look at it. That was a great experience as well. To go to the Statehouse and get to work [as chief of staff] for a statewide elected official was fantastic. I made a ton of friends.
I knew the Statehouse from my time lobbying on behalf of the Southwest Indiana Chamber, so it wasn’t completely foreign to walk in on day one. But I also learned quickly that I was meant to be in the chamber world. We got Treasurer Mitchell through a reelect in her second term of strategic planning. Christy Gillenwater, my old [chamber] boss in Evansville, had gone to Chattanooga and called and said, “Hey, I need you to move to Chattanooga.”
At that point, I was convinced the chamber role was where I wanted to be. So four and a half years later, here I am back in Evansville at an organization that I know and couldn’t be happier to have the opportunity.
What made E-REP a good fit for you?
Having known Lloyd [Winnecke, the new CEO of E-REP] for as long as I have, there’s a natural relationship that he and I have built from the time when I was district director to Congressman Bucshon. I was around when [Winnecke] was first elected [Evansville] mayor and spent several years working with his administration.
I knew the region, some of the projects that we were working on back when I left. The I-69 bridge has come a long way since I left … there’s still a lot to be done there to get that bridge fully functional. There was a certain comfort level in knowing some of the players, understanding who the board members are, having relationships with a lot of those folks that I’ve kept since I left.
It was a perfect storm of right opportunity, right people. I have a two-month-old, so my parents are very excited to have Jack 10 minutes from them now. Everything lined up. I loved my time in Chattanooga. I was not really looking to go anywhere, but sometimes the right opportunity comes, and you have to take it.
Explain your role as chief strategy officer.
I am mainly responsible for the membership piece of the organization … Josh Armstrong handles the economic development side. I handle sort of the more traditional membership side of the house but also bring a background in public policy.
[Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative] grants are a big thing right now, and we’re well on the line of having some projects ready to go. The bridge will be a fairly big priority and something that will be on my radar fairly heavily. Helping bridge some of those bigger projects and bringing my background in public policy and some of those relationships will benefit the organization.
I’m trying to make sure we provide the best service for our members that we can. We’ve grown in our footprint. We’ve now added a couple of counties outside of Vanderburgh. Making sure that they know that they’re just as big a part of E-REP as Evansville is a critical piece of what we’re planning on doing here. Collaboration is everything and one of the things that southwest Indiana has always done incredibly well.
If you look at what we did with Bridgelink and working with the chamber in Henderson and the mayor and the county government and Evansville. Getting everybody rowing the same way from the federal delegation to two state governments to four local governmental entities plus the business community. We have always shown collaboration is one of the reasons why we are as successful as we’ve been. E-REP is a great opportunity to continue that regional approach.
What are your short-term goals?
Get up to speed and make sure that our membership side of the house is clicking the way it should. We want to get re-engaged with the legislative session that just started. We are very fortunate to have Rideout Public Affairshelping us with the day-to-day stuff and looking forward to re-engaging with Sally [Rideout]and her team to get up to speed on where we are and what we’re pushing at the legislature.
Getting reacclimated to Evansville and getting plugged in is the most important thing I can do in the first 90 days. Then from there, let the projects come and dive in as those opportunities grow. Lloyd and I are both in the same boat where he started [with E-REP] a couple of days earlier, but not by much. We’re both trying to get up to speed, but he’s been great, and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity.
What are your long-term goals?
My number one [goal] is to get the bridge done … to grow a region that is the envy of the state. How we do that regionally … is making sure that we are competitive not only in Indiana but in the entire Midwest as a place for people to land, to live, to work, to grow a business.
I’ve made it back here twice now, so there is something that draws those of us who were born here back. We need to be able to sell it to people who have never been here and then show the real value of what this region has. How we get there is to be determined. We’ve got a lot of projects that are quality-of-place-minded with READI. We did a lot with regional cities over the last several years that are showing great return on investment.
The riverfront project … it’s a generational project for multiple counties. To have this much riverfront be the focus of a renovation and have a focus on quality of place is going to be one of the great Midwest stories. From that standpoint, making sure this place is on the map, making sure people know what we bring to the table and letting people experience it. That’s going to be the winning formula.
What does the future look like for E-REP?
Having the economic development portion with the business advocacy and business membership portion as well as the [Evansville Regional Sports Commission] provides a lot more continuity. Everybody’s moving in the same way as opposed to having four different meetings to get to how we’re going to move forward.
Combining the economic development and the chamber piece was smart, having seen it in Chattanooga work as well as it did. I was excited from afar when I heard that [the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville and the Economic Development Coalition] were merging with the chamber. It provides all that much more clout when we’re trying to move some of these big projects. That lockstep collaboration is critical to getting things done.
We’ve shown that we can move quickly, we can move seamlessly, and having all of it under the same roof and having all of us running the same way is important. The sky’s the limit, and I truly believe I wouldn’t have packed up and moved here if I didn’t think that was the case.
I’m excited to have a small part in what we’re trying to do here and collaborating with Congressman Bucshon for his last several months [in office] and hopefully with whoever replaces him. And capitalizing on Governor [Eric] Holcomb’s last few months in office and then seeing where the chips fall in the next governor’s race. There are a lot of relationships that are going to need to be built over the next couple of years.
What are you most proud of so far in your career?
I am most proud of getting the memorandum of understanding signed on the bridge. For as collaborative as that effort was, to get that much work done that quickly was unheard of. From the first meeting that we had, which was right around the time I was about to leave Congressman Bucshon’s office to come to the chamber, to Gov. [Mike] Pence and Gov. [Matt] Bevin going to Ellis Park and signing an MOU was about three or four years.
To be able to have gotten that project off the ground and legs behind it was important. To see ground moving in Kentucky already and knowing that Indiana will soon start working on the approaches. Every time I came home to visit, I’d see more dirt move and get a smile on my face. That is the biggest project sitting there that will help unlock a whole lot of economic development potential.