Tim Holverson began his role as president and CEO of De Soto’s Chamber of Commerce this week after 30 years in various roles in the industry. 

Holverson said his interest in this work goes back to his childhood. He grew up in a small farming community in eastern Iowa. The community was devastated in the mid-’80s due to the farm economy and the rise of agriculture manufacturing companies like John Deere and Caterpillar, he said. 

“Locally, we had unemployment rates at like 8%,” he said. “So, when I got out of college, unemployment was hovering in that range. I volunteered in my local Chamber of Commerce.”

After developing a passion for planning and economic development, Holverson got his master’s in public administration and found a job in Centerville, Iowa. Since then, he’s worked in Chambers throughout northeastern Kansas, spending the last 13 years in Overland Park

Holverson said his years of experience has prepared him for this role. 

“The experience really has kind of run the gamut from the Chamber side of the house to the economic development side of the house,” he said. “Having had the experience in both of those areas, I felt like my expertise probably lined up pretty well with the needs.”

The De Soto Chamber has about 200 members, and Holverson said he is looking forward to meeting everyone and learning more about what the community needs. 

The Eudora Times asked Holverson about his previous experience and future plans for the community. 

Q. Why were you interested in becoming president and CEO of the De Soto Chamber? 

Having grown up in a small town, I kind of had a soft spot in my heart and knew at some point in my career I wanted to return to a small town Chamber. I was contacted about it and asked if I might be interested. I’ve been following everything that’s gone on here with Panasonic. With regional cooperation and De Soto being in the spotlight, I felt like I might have a lot to offer and that it would be fun to be able to be a part of something like that. 

The economic impact of Panasonic will play a large part in this position. What do you foresee as the immediate steps the Chamber president needs to be doing right now ahead of the plant’s opening in the spring?

I need to get up to speed about everything that Panasonic brings, everything that Panasonic and their suppliers need, and how we as a community can best address those needs. If there are needs that we cannot handle as specifically De Soto, how we as a region can do that and to be an advocate around the region to ensure that’s done to the best of our ability to really maximize it for this entire region of the state of Kansas.

Going off that, how do you see De Soto’s business community adjusting to the plant’s opening in the months to come, and what do you feel your role is as Chamber president to help with that?

Our job is to be kind of that conduit and to roll out the information as we get it and share as much information as we can with the business community in a digestible way and, as necessary, connecting the dots for them. It could go so far as helping them understand what those needs and opportunities are, so that they can better themselves as businesses, then market to that audience. 

I mean, we see there’s 2,650 people out there working on the plant every day now, and they’re certainly eating in our restaurants and shopping in our stores or buying gas, you name it. Well, those numbers may be similar moving forward, but at different times of the day, and are their needs different?

Why did you want to leave Overland Park and instead move to a smaller town?

That ends up going into a more personal side of things. I’m a single parent, and when my son was getting ready to go elementary school, I was running the Chamber up a lot more in Lansing, and logistically it was impractical, because his day care was in Olathe. I needed to find a new opportunity so then I took the position in Overland Park. 

That was a staff position when I had been in a management position prior to that, so I took the step back because I wanted to be an involved parent. I had done that for the last 12 or 13 years, but my son is getting ready to go off to KU in a month. So, now there’s an opportunity for me to focus on myself again a little bit. I loved my time at Overland Park and learned a lot, and I’m going to continue to lean on those relationships and partner with them when we can, but it was time for a change for me.

What are some of the experiences working for the Overland Park Chamber that you think helped prepare you for this role?

The Overland Park Chamber is one of a handful of five-star accredited Chambers in the country, and I’ve been familiar with them and their reputation since about a second or third year in Chamber and economic development. I’d like to think I learned something in my time there and that we can take some of the programming that they have and right size it for De Soto, as well as find opportunities for De Soto to partner, not only with Overland Park, but really step up, be included more with the other Chambers in Johnson County.

Are there any specific projects or initiatives you hope to bring to the De Soto business community that you either found to be successful in your prior work or that you feel are needed here?

It might be a little early for me to answer that question very effectively. At this point, I’m trying to listen and really find out what’s important to the local business community. I see a need for more networking opportunities. I mean, it’s safe to say we need to do that. I think we can do more in helping them celebrate grand openings and ribbon cuttings as well. 

I’d love to see us establish a diplomat or an ambassador program that provides value to those diplomats or ambassadors, as well as helps us with obviously very limited staff, to be able to extend our reach out further to the business community and have more eyes and ears out there. 

In the longer term, I think that there’s some opportunities to partner better with the school system and provide those opportunities for the students here. Just visibly demonstrate the importance of business and education working together to solve problems.

You are also going to lead the De Soto Economic Development Council. What are some of your immediate priorities there?

First and foremost, getting up to date and familiar with all the projects that are going on. There’s a tremendous project volume that we have in here that’s really encouraging. To get around and meet with the investors, to meet with the business parks and find out their priorities and how I can best assist them and to communicate out. Setting meetings with the Kansas Department of Commerce and the Kansas City Area Development Council and others that are in regular contact with site selection consultants.

Finding enough workers is a challenge for small businesses right now. What ideas do you have to help overcome this?

Going back to what we talked about with the school district and talking about those opportunities that are out there for those students that would like to remain in the area upon graduation. Good quality opportunities that maybe don’t require a degree or maybe certification training instead.

What do you think are other issues facing local businesses in De Soto right now that the Chamber can play a role in addressing?

Our businesses in De Soto, whether we’re talking about retail, commercial, but also our existing industries in the community, to know how much we value them and how important they are to us. The majority of economic development growth and expansion occurs from what you already have in your community. 

So, you want to grow your own, that’s the best return on investment, and so it’ll be a priority always for us to go out and visit not just the shops on Main Street, but to work with and visit and constantly communicate with those existing industries in our community. 

Panasonic will obviously have a regional impact, not just on De Soto. Do you think more collaboration is needed with the Eudora and other surrounding Chambers and, if so, how could the Chambers work together more?

One of the first things comes to mind is housing. De Soto is not equipped to handle everybody. We can’t handle 4,000 or 5,000 people descending upon Panasonic every day. They can’t, as much as we’d love to capture all that. It’s going to take the entire region probably from Topeka to possibly even on the Missouri side of the state line to fill those needs. I think just having open communication with them. 

Overall, what do you think the Chamber’s job is in a community?

Community convener ​​is probably one of the top words that I would always use to describe the Chamber because we gather people together to solve problems. You’ve got to have that place to gather and talk about issues and work through them. 

And you’re in a unique position to be able to do that because you can bring together the business community, bring together the community at large, elected officials and governing bodies all to hopefully look outward in the same direction and work to solve problems.