Edmond O’Neal III leads Northeast Indiana Works, the region’s not-for-profit workforce development organization. O’Neal, who has been with the organization for 13 years, oversees a workforce system that includes 11 WorkOne career centers, a youth development organization and a career service program that assists employers and individuals looking for jobs. He serves on the boards of Star Financial Bank, the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, the Greater Fort Wayne Community Foundation, the Questa Education Foundation, Erin’s House for Grieving Children and Catie B Charities. He also serves on the Fort Wayne United Steering Committee.
Job swap: Owning and operating a sneaker store with my son.
Something surprising: “I am really into muscle cars.”
Walk-up song: “Motivation,” by Spiritual Tony
Favorite sports team: Memphis Grizzlies
Mike Pence, who in June announced he’s running for the Republican presidential nomination, served as the nation’s 48th vice president from 2017-2021 after winning on a ticket with Republican Donald Trump. He chaired the National Space Council and the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Pence was in his first term as governor of Indiana when Trump picked him to be his running mate. A Columbus native, Pence was elected governor in 2012. He implemented one of the state’s largest tax cuts and increased funding for private-education initiatives. He previously served six terms in the U.S. House representing first Indiana’s 2nd District and then the 6th District. He chaired the Republican Study Committee from 2005 to 2007 and served as chair of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011, the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership. In 2021, Pence founded Advancing American Freedom, a policy and advocacy organization “established to promote pro-freedom policies.”
Jeff Rea is president and CEO of both the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Niles Chamber of Commerce across the state line in Michigan. His team of 15 works with 1,300 member businesses that employ more than 85,000 people. Rea recently has been focused on driving regional economic growth and school improvement. A former mayor of Mishawaka, he helped form the North Central Indiana Regional Development Authority, and he is a founding member of the South Bend Empowerment Zone, a school turnaround effort in the South Bend schools.
Toughest challenge: “I was the youngest mayor in Indiana. During the campaign, I was quickly dismissed because of what some thought related to my age and experience.”
On leadership: “There is a seat at the table for everyone, but they have to show up. I see too many people pop in, expect quick results, then pop out because they didn’t achieve what they wanted.”
Clay Robbins joined Lilly Endowment—a private foundation supporting community development, education and religion—in 1993 as vice president for community development to supervise that division’s grantmaking activities. He was elected president of the endowment in 1994 and in 1999 was elected to the board. In 2012, he was named CEO and about three years later was elected chair as well. He served 30 years on the United Way of Central Indiana board and is a former board member of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and Damar Homes.
First job: “Beginning at age 11, I delivered, with my younger brother, The Indianapolis News for five years. My grandmother told me it would teach me to make change.”
Something surprising: “In the mid-1970s, I was the first intern for the Indianapolis Clean City Committee, now known as Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.”
Favorite gadget: “The cordless rechargeable hedge trimmer that my brother gave me for Christmas.”
David Rosenberg joined the IEDC in August 2021 and has helped lead the job-creation agency’s team of more than 100. He has overseen creation of the state’s LEAP Innovation and Research District in Boone County and implementation of the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (known as READI), which is distributing $500 million to communities across Indiana for quality-of-life initiatives. Rosenberg, who was chief of staff to former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, serves on the boards of Visit Indy, KIPP Indy and the Boy Scouts Crossroads of America Council.
Learned about leading: “Authenticity is supreme. If you aren’t your true self when leading a team, your team will know, and there will immediately be distrust. You have to be authentic to who you are and not try to be a leader you see from others or movies.”
Change about Indiana: “Our humility. There are so many amazing things going on around the state (many of which are not happening anywhere else in the country), and we need to tell the world what Indiana is truly about.”
Becky Skillman spent four decades in public service, including 16 years as a local elected official in Lawrence County and 12 years in the Indiana Senate. In 2004, she was elected lieutenant governor on a ticket with Republican Mitch Daniels and served two terms, with oversight of the state’s agriculture, community and rural affairs, energy, housing and tourism agencies. She now chairs Radius Indiana, which is an economic development corporation for eight counties in south central Indiana, and is lead director on the Old National Bancorp board.
Advice to young people: “Know who you are and fully understand your value system. If you don’t know what you stand for, there will be many others along life’s journey who will tell you who you are and what you stand for.”
Something surprising: The first woman to represent Indiana Senate District 44, serve in Senate majority leadership and serve eight years as lieutenant governor.
Chuck Surack is the founder and former CEO and chair of Sweetwater Sound, an online retailer of musical instruments and audio equipment that he established in 1979 as a four-track recording studio in the back of his Volkswagen bus. Surack sold a majority share of the company to Providence Equity Partners in 2021 and stepped away to focus on Surack Enterprises, the holding company for his other enterprises, which include SweetCars, Aviation Specialty Insurance, Enstrom Helicopter Corp., Lakeland Internet, Longe Optical and Sweet Aviation.
Indiana change: “I wish people had a more positive attitude and would feel better about Indiana and themselves. I love Indiana. It is a great place for business and to raise your family. Everything we need is here.”
Pets: “Two cats and one dog. Malfoy the cat leaves hair everywhere, but he likes to cuddle. Lucy [is] the cat I never see, yet we pay for food, litter and medical. Wilbur, the four-pound, 11-ounce Maltese dog, is convinced he is a 100-pound watchdog, but he is also a lover.”
John Kite became CEO of Kite Realty Group Trust in 2004, when it went public as a real estate investment trust—a type of public company modeled after mutual funds that disperse revenue to investors. Before that, he had been president of Kite Cos. for seven years. He joined the organization as chief financial officer of Kite Development in 1990. He has served as board chair since December 2008. He oversaw Kite’s merger with Retail Properties of America Inc., a move that made Kite the fifth-largest shopping center REIT in the nation.
Tom McGowan served as executive vice president and one of four partners of Kite Cos., later named Kite Realty Group Trust, beginning in 1994. For 10 years, the company experienced rapid growth before McGowan and his partners took it public as a real estate investment trust—a type of public company modeled after mutual funds that disperse revenue to investors. In 2021, the company merged with Retail Properties of America Inc., a move that made Kite the fifth-largest shopping center REIT in the nation. It is now active in 24 states with an enterprise value of more than $8 billion.
Tadd Miller co-founded Indianapolis-based Milhaus in 2010. The mixed-use development, construction and property management group specializes in Class A, urban, multifamily residential buildings. He’s led the development, financing, construction and management of infill residential, hospitality and storage projects in excess of $3 billion. Under his leadership, Milhaus has become one of the top 15 multifamily developers and top five allocators of Opportunity Zone investment funds in the nation.
Job swap: “I wish I could be back on the construction site daily, doing manual labor in the great outdoors. [From] watching derelict buildings and sites get cleaned up and put back in service to seeing the buildings come out of the ground, there is something that still gets me going. I feel way more at home at the controls of an excavator, dozer, crane or with a hammer and toolbelt on than I do in the conference rooms and airplanes I find myself in incessantly anymore.”
Favorite sports team: “Purdue Polytechnic High School volleyball and soccer, where my son plays.”
