Statewide Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds is issuing an executive order to create what she’s calling the Governor’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. She says the panel will help to “chart a course” for Iowa’s economic comeback after months of setbacks due to COVID-19.
(as said) “This board will be our economic tip of the spear,” she says, “looking across the spectrum of Iowa businesses and industries and non-profit organizations to assess the economic impact of COVID-19 and those whose lives have been hit hard by this pandemic.”
The advisory board’s members include executives from John Deere, Vermeer, MidAmerican Energy, Hy-Vee and other business organizations. It’s to be chaired by Ben McLean, the CEO of Des Moines-based Ruan Transportation.
(as said) “There are immense challenges that many Iowans are facing today,” McLean says. “…Even in the toughest times, we do not shy away from a challenge. Instead, we persevere. We innovate, we engineer, we implement systems that will enable us to emerge from difficult times stronger than we’ve ever been before and this time will be no different.”
Reynolds says Iowa is well into the recovery phase of the pandemic and the board’s work will form the basis of her 2021 legislative agenda.
(as said) “Iowa’s success has always been about turning obstacles into opportunities, from the Dust Bowl of the ’30s to the Farm Crisis of the ’80s to last year’s record flooding,” Reynolds says. “We overcome adversity together.”
In addition to 10 business executives, the head of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce will serve on the board. Reynolds says the latest data indicates 50-thousand Iowans who lost their jobs this spring due to the pandemic, are employed again.
