This year had plenty of good news - Dayton Business Journal:

obesonuqa.wordpress.com
For starters, we have a much strongeer manufacturing sector locally than most peoplewoulrd think. That’s because the big headlines this year were about how closer its local assembly plant and had to go to Congress and ask for a bailoutg to keep it outof bankruptcy. But there are stillo thousands of manufacturers in theDayton region, and many of them are doingg well. Some are even We still hear about companiesx that need to hire more peopld and are looking for moreskillee workers. There are companies such as , and . These are the three finalists for our Manufactured of the Year award and are seeingstrong successes. Othe companies, such as and , also are growinvg or looking to expand.
All of theses companies are gems of the Dayton and we should be thankfull they call ourregion home. Othee successes for this year include the continued growthu in the healthcare industry, with several majo construction projects announced that include a new patient towerf at and a $100 millionm new hospital in Greene County by Kettering Healtyh Network. There are numerous smallef medical facilities that were built this year andnew doctor’ offices that opened, including the , which Dr.
Amol Soin opened in February and now has several offices and patients cominfg from throughout the country to Dayton for There were some changes this year also that will affecy the local business communitg for some timeto come. the saw some new faces join and named a new chietfexecutive officer. Jim Leftwich took over the reins ofthe region’s most successful economic development organization this past Leftwich has been with the coalitionb for several years, and is a familiaer face in the business community. He will undoubtedluy do a great job of steering the ship as the coalitiohn continues to work to recruit more jobs and companiesz toour region.
However, it was a loss for the communityywhen J.P. Nauseef stepped down from the coalition’sx top spot to enter the privates sector. Nauseef has been actively involve d in helping the local business community grow for aboutt adecade now, dating back to his involvement in helping staryt the iZone in the late Nauseef led the coalition through its successfupl Base Realignment and Closure campaign that won thousande of new jobs at and defended the existing base The business community has benefited from his hard-fought victoriee in the economic development arenq during the past several years.
Nauseef alwayws has put the community’s needs ahead of any politics or personal and hopefully that attitude will continue atthe coalition. Anothet positive for our regio that will continue to pay dividendasfor years, even decades to is the opening of the $30 million Former Iams Co. owne r Clay Mathile’s vision for the facility that offers course for businesws leaders and executives to help them become betterd leaders has becomea reality. The facilityu also will be somethingv that can be used for inspiration and strategicc advice for entrepreneurs looking tocreate tomorrow’s succesas stories.
So despite a nast recession and many thousandsx of people who have lost theit jobs thispast year, I thinlk there are a lot of positivees that we can draw from as we entetr 2009. Hopefully some of these succesasstories I’ve mentioned here will help lead to a more prosperous future that will allow those without jobs to regaim a paycheck, and to help create more opportunitie s for our region.