Partnership to host DEI roundtable discussions with CEOs
BY BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Tuesday, April 6, 2021 10:50 AM The Greater Des Moines Partnership will host a series of diversity, equity and inclusion roundtable discussions with CEOs who signed the CEO Commitment to Racial Equity last fall.
Dates for the discussions have not been set and will be announced at a later date. According to a news release, the roundtable discussions will be designed to give CEOs an opportunity to share best practices, learn from leaders in DEI, and work collaboratively to measure their progress.
So far, more than 200 organizational leaders have signed the pledge.
Wright hired as startup community builder at Greater Des Moines Partnership Thursday, April 1, 2021 3:08 PM Diana Wright has joined the Greater Des Moines Partnership as its startup community builder. Wright, who most recently worked at Iowa State University’s Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, will begin her new role on April 19. She will engage with existing startup and high-growth businesses and will help new startups connect with the community, its mentors, advisers, investors and other community leaders. “I am focused on a single purpose: to help entrepreneurs build real, impactful businesses in Iowa,” Wright said in a news release announcing her hiring. “I am excited to work with existing and aspiring startup founders in Greater Des Moines to help them connect, build upon success and identify how we can collectively continue to build the startup ecosystem in this community.” In her role with the Pappajohn Center, Wright led, created,
Milken report shows D.M. drops on list of best-performing cities
BY MICHAEL CRUMB, Senior Staff Writer Thursday, April 1, 2021 3:09 PM Des Moines had the fifth-steepest decline in the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities list, in part because of slow wage growth in high-tech industries, an author of the report said.
The report, Best-Performing Cities 2021: Foundation for Growth and Recovery, shows that Des Moines fell 54 spots from 79 in 2020 to 133 this year in the large city category for metropolitan areas with populations at or above 270,000.
“I think the key question for Des Moines is the quality and the wage of the jobs that are being created, and what do they pay, and if they’re not where we want them to be, how do we get there?” said Misael Galdamez, one of authors of the report from the nonpartisan think tank and its Center for Regional Economics.
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Iowaâs startup mentor Mike Colwell reflects on career lessons Friday, March 5, 2021 6:00 AM
Following Mike Colwell’s retirement at the end of February as executive director of entrepreneurial initiatives at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, he’ll lead one more session of the Partnership’s Raising Capital Seminar Series in March, a twice-yearly power course for entrepreneurs learning how to fund their business.
Colwell, himself a private investor, is preparing to enjoy a “semiretired” life with his wife in Colorado but plans to continue supporting Central Iowa startups as a mentor the root of his work over the years. For this spring’s seminar course, entrepreneurs will benefit knowing COVID-19 opened a whole new set of virtual doors, he said.