Still nobody choosing Worcester
Business-backed group’s CEO search continues
Business-backed non-profit Choose Worcester is still proceeding with its year-old quest to find a CEO for its business-recruitment effort, but the organization’s board chair and CEO Sumner Tilton says, "I’m beginning to feel like Mayor Menino."
Tilton referenced Boston Mayor Tom Menino’s difficulties in hiring a school superintendent because Choose Worcester has faced a string of refusals from chosen candidates for its top executive spot since it began looking to fill the $150,000 a year job a year ago. Its office suite in the Sovereign Bank building remains empty and its $1.3 million in donations from the business community to promote the city to businesses around the country is gathering interest.
First, Tilton notes, there was the hiree from Cleveland who couldn’t sell his house. Next, a second choice found that his 13-year-old daughter wanted to stay in St. Louis. And finally, Rod Jane, executive director of the Mass. Office of Business development, took a walk on a hiring offer after the new governor’s administration asked him to stay on
in his present job.
Why is no one choosing Choose Worcester? Part of the problem, Tilton speculates, may be that the CEO will need to come up with a way for fund the organization beyond the three-year period that current donations will cover. Another challenge, he says, is in drawing businesses to the city in the face of its split tax rate tipping the scales against such corporate recruits.
Tilton says the owner of Boston-based consultant Isaacson, Miller has taken over the search process in the wake of the setbacks. "Frankly, I don’t think Isaacson, Miller wants to fail in this search," he says.
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