All week we have highlighted some of the outstanding work of the business development team at Macomb County Planning and Economic Development (MCPED) as part of National Economic Development Week.
The blogs over the past four days have showcased everything that Dan Rochon, Curt Chowanic, Jack Johns and Camille Silda do to help businesses of all sizes and tenure within Macomb County. Today we end our features with MCPED’s business development team program director – James “Jim Ahee”.
Jim Ahee assists local companies in the region, as well as, firms that are based outside of southeast Michigan, both nationally and internationally, that may be interested in expanding or relocating to Macomb County. He assists his team across industries and geographic regions but has extensive experience with the aerospace, automation/robotics, automotive, cybersecurity/information technology and defense sectors as well as the Middle East region. Before joining the business development team, Ahee owned two market research and consulting firms which served a number of Fortune 500 companies across the country. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Wayne State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management and marketing from Lawrence Technological University.
As the leader of the business development team, he is a key member of many projects and helps guide his team and the businesses they work with to achieve success. As a result of collective hard work, 2019 was a very successful year, which you can read about in detail below.
2019 Year in Review
During 2019 Macomb County continued to grow and diversify its economy. The business development team within MCPED worked with over 500 companies throughout the year. The companies spanned across startups and small businesses to large tier one manufacturers as well as major international corporations. The services provided ranged from helping a company find one or two key employees to working with an international manufacturer expanding its production footprint and creating thousands of new positions. Even with existing organizations, the team has helped many companies both grow their workforce and train both new as well as current employees.
Last year alone, the business development team assisted 21 organizations with the expansion of operations in Macomb County, as well as, helped facilitate new investments of more than $1.7 billion in facilities, machinery and equipment. These investments created 2,268 new jobs and retained 4,468 positions. The investment was across a wide spectrum of industries including defense, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, medical technology, automotive and retail.
The business development team is to be congratulated on a very positive year. Camille Silda, Jack Johns, Curt Chowanic, Dan Rochon and Jim Ahee all worked diligently to ensure the successful completion of each initiative they assisted companies with. No matter how big or how small, each project and business received knowledge and expertise from the team to ensure they all had the best possible solutions for their unique needs.
If you’d like to get in touch with Jim to find out how more about how he and his team can help your business, email him at jim.ahee@macombgov.org.
To learn more about the entire business development team and the variety of resources available to businesses in Macomb County, visit www.macombbusiness.com.