Southwest Michigan First

Tim Terrentine, one of Kalamazoo County’s fastest rising young leaders who was recently named Western Michigan University’s vice president of development and alumni relations, is today's featured guest on WMUK's WestSouthwest public-affairs show. At age 37, he’s already been an executive director of a nonprofit organization, and now a vice president for a second time. But in a candid interview with Earlene McMichael, Terrentine shares that his many successes almost didn’t happen, even having once dropped out of college until mentors intervened.

It was a time of plant closings and corporate downsizing when Southwest Michigan First formed in 1999 in Kalamazoo. SWMF CEO Ron Kitchens says the 14 business leaders who dreamed up the group wanted it to keep existing employers here and, draw new ones to the region. The organization has been successful in doing that, Kitchens tells WMUK's Earlene McMichael on today's WestSouthwest public-affairs show. In the last five years alone, Southwest Michigan has seen a net gain of about 37,000 jobs, and he says his group's efforts are one of the contributing factors in job growth.