The Annual Meeting Event Recap

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance (Economic Alliance) hosted their Annual Meeting event this afternoon, bringing together 900 individuals from member businesses to celebrate and reflect on 2022 highlights and achievements and learn about 2023 goals.

Let's check out some of the event highlights!

The Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award Winner

Timothy Charles, former President & CEO of Mercy Medical Center, was our recipient of the 2022 Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award. In Charles acceptance remarks he stated he's simply a product of the Howard Hall Excellence in Business Award winners before him, and is incredibly humbled to be a link in that chain.

Timothy Charles retired from Mercy Medical Center on December 31st, 2022 after spending 19 years with the organization with 15 of those years as President & CEO. In that time, he led Mercy through significant expansion. Signature projects included the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center and the under-construction Plumb Heart Center, as well as development of HallMar Village, an advanced medically integrated community for seniors including those living with dementia. He also led Mercy through significant challenges including the Flood of 2008, the pandemic, and the derecho – all while placing patient care and staff safety first.

Charles and his wife Janice plan to remain in Cedar Rapids and stay active in the community they fell in love with.

Our Keynote Panelists

Moderator, Quinn Pettifer , led the discussion with our keynote panelists Steve Ginsberg L. Ginsberg, Ginsberg Jewelers; Darryl High , High Properties; Ted Kepros , Kepros Physical Therapy & Performance PC; Jaymie McGrath ,?McGrath Family of Dealerships and Paul Phelan , Phelan’s Interiors.

These family owned businesses, bearing the family name, shared why they believe the Cedar Rapids metro area is a great place to do business and why their company has chosen to continue investing in this area.

"Our [Cedar Rapids Community] secret sauce is our people" - Darryl High, High Properties

Key Takeaways

• Understand the importance of building trust and relationships
• Change with the trends
• Discover and know your niche
• Cedar Rapids is a community that supports one another and is not to be overlooked
• Give back to your community

Our Attendees

We also wouldn't be able to achieve these accomplishments without the support of our members and partners.

We appreciate you all!

Our Annual Report

Please view the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance 2022 Annual Report !

"As we take our annual look back at the year just ended, we are again humbled by the amazing support of the business community. Through times good, bad and uncertain, businesses have invested in us to be the steadfast advocate for growing the economy and helping businesses succeed. Throughout this report, you’ll see outcomes and descriptions that measure our accomplishments in 2022. None of it would have been possible without the investments of almost 1,200 members, including 108 new members last year and record membership retention just shy of 97 percent. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU." - Doug Neumann

We enjoyed celebrating with you all! Big thank you to our Presenting Sponsor U.S. Bank and our Supporting Sponsors CRST The Transportation Solution, Inc. , Mercy Medical Center (Mercy Cedar Rapids), Riverside Casino & Golf Resort? and TrueNorth Companies, L.C.