RAEDC President Says Goodbye to Rockford for Family Reasons – MyStateline.com

ROCKFORD – A major player
who has helped the Stateline’s economy for nearly a decade is calling it
quits.  The Rockford Area Economic
Development Council will now have to find new leadership after their CEO,
Janyce Fadden, submitted her letter of resignation on Wednesday.  Fadden cites a move to be closer to family as
a reason for making the decision.

 

Any large scale
economic project to come to fruition in the Rockford region had Janyce Fadden coaching it
from the sidelines.

 

“I’m honored that I
was able to make this contribution,” said Fadden, commenting on her 8 years
heading up RAEDC.

 

Fadden says family
has been missing in the equation here in Rockford,
so a move to Alabama
where Fadden says she has family will be soon to come.

 

“It’s something
that I’ve wanted to do for a while and so it just seemed like this is the right
time to do it,” said Fadden.

 

In her capacity as
RAEDC’s CEO, Fadden worked in large part to help reshore manufacturing jobs to
the ForestCity – much ado with private sector
background in manufacturing.  But Fadden’s
most notable work has been with the area’s aerospace industry.  Her work with Eiger Lab and the expansion of
Woodward’s LovesPark campus helped give new life to old
industry.

 

“You can go from a
very big project like Woodward to much smaller projects where we go into a
small ten person shop and help them with an export program,” said Fadden.

 

“All of those are
satisfying piece of work.  Every job in
this community is important to the community’s wealth.”

 

Winnebago County has benefitted from the work of
Janyce Fadden – to the tune of almost 20,000 jobs.  She’s also helped to create nearly a dozen other
organizations that help economic development in the Rockford area. 

 

“Janyce has done a
wonderful job as far as getting and creating the infrastructure and where we’ve
come over her tenure is truly remarkable,” said Scott Christiansen, Winnebago
County Board Chairman.

 

Christiansen says
part of Fadden’s success story was putting capable people in position to help
complete the work of RAEDC.  He says he’s
confident that the staff of RAEDC will continue to do that work and excel.

 

“Knowing her
[Fadden] I know she wouldn’t be comfortable leaving it any other way,” said
Christiansen.

 

Fadden says she won’t
leave until her replacement has been found. 
She says she’ll be integral in helping to find that replacement.