RAEDC President Says Goodbye to Rockford for Family Reasons

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 Forest City - 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 Loves Park 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.