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BOARD PRESIDENT
DICK FLEMING
President & CEO
St. Louis Regional
Chamber and Growth Association
St. Louis, MO
For over 30 years, Dick Fleming has been a civic entrepreneur, engaged in private sector and civic initiatives to revitalize center cities and metropolitan communities in Atlanta, Denver and, St. Louis.
In July 1994, he was recruited to St. Louis as President and Chief Executive Officer of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA), the bi-state region's chamber of commerce and economic development organization, where he currently serves. He oversees a staff of 50 and an annual operating budget of over $12 million.
He is presently leading the region's third 5-year regional economic development campaign. The initial campaign helped add over 112,000 net new jobs to the bistate region (following more than a decade in which the region had no net growth). The second multiyear campaign focused on fulfilling the potential of the region's plant and life sciences, information technologies, advanced manufacturing, financial services, and transportation/cargo industry clusters, as well as enhancing the region's workforce, infrastructure and center city "products". The current campaign --- RCGA's Greater St. Louis, Inc. initiative --- was launched in 2005 and is a 5-year, $21 million regional economic development and branding effort.
The RCGA was named by the Industrial Asset Management Council in Site Selection Magazine as one of the 10 best economic development organizations in the nation in 2006 and again in 2007. Additionally, the St. Louis regional brand has been awarded the Public Relations Society of America’s top award for 2007.
Nationally, Mr. Fleming serves as the Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) --- the national association of 1,200 chambers of commerce; current Chairman of Partners for Livable Communities; a founding member and Chairman-of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship; a member of the Metropolitan Leadership Network; a Citistates Associate; a long time active executive council member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI); is past Chairman of the International Downtown Association; is an original Panel Member for the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation’s National Climate Prosperity Project; and is a Partner in the Brookings Institute’s “Blueprint for American Prosperity”.
He graduated from Loyola College with an undergraduate degree in political science and philosophy; from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with an M.B.A; and, concurrently, from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Fine Arts with a masters degree in city planning.
Mr. Fleming is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Fontbonne College and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He and former Denver Mayor Federico Peña were recipients of Partners for Livable Communities’ “Bridge Builders Award” for business and civil rights leadership in 1997.