NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA AREA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
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Directly on the heels of the Olympic excitement over the 4x100-metre men’s relay gold-medal win, the Orillia Area Community Development Corporation (CDC) has exciting news regarding the passing of the baton to a new general manager.
As was evident in the Olympic race, it takes a team to achieve greatness. Likewise, the skilled, knowledgeable staff team at the CDC will carry forward our mission to serve our community with a new leader at the helm to reach new heights.
After 14 years leading the CDC staff team with excellence and award-winning results, Wendy Timpano is moving on to another role within the County of Simcoe to further use her expertise and knowledge in economic development.
The board wishes to express our sincere appreciation to Wendy for her hard work, commitment and passion that she poured into her tenure with the CDC. We will forever be thankful for the passion that Wendy poured into the further development of the CDC and for rising to the challenge of leading through the economically trying pandemic years as well.
While we are very excited for this opportunity for Wendy, and have greatly appreciated her leadership style and accomplishments, we realized we needed to create a benchmark for what the new leader’s skill set would be in order to lead the organization into a new season. This was achieved through the services of Prism Group and the scientific survey results of several key stakeholders of the CDC.
The board of directors is very excited to announce that Jim Fitzgerald is the successful candidate, after an extensive, three-month process to search for the strongest leader to fill the role of general manager.
Lynn Thomas, CDC board chair, was part of the team to lead the search and interview process to find the right candidate to fit the benchmark for the role.
Thomas shared, “We had an extensive list of applicants that were educated and experienced in economic development, NFP (not-for-profit) and financial industries, and we were appreciative that so many excellent candidates were interested in leading our team at the CDC. It was a pleasure to be part of narrowing the field down to finally offer Jim the role as we truly felt he brought the best, most well-rounded background and leadership skills to lead us to a new season of success and growth in our region.”
We have hired the candidate that we feel will lead the services we offer to the business and NFP sectors to achieve new opportunities and success. Jim has shared that he is very excited to be taking on the role.
“I am optimistic about the future of small business in Orillia and surrounding area and also the excellent staff team that is in place to achieve success.”
Jim stated that his first matter of business will be to thoroughly examine the CDC strategic priorities and mission statements recently rewritten by the board of directors in order to set goals for the future.
“I feel we are at a pivotal time post-pandemic to grow the business sector as many businesses from other parts of the province have realized the great potential to build success into their enterprises within the Orillia area with lower cost of living than in other urban centres, in particular the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).”
Fitzgerald’s background is perfectly suited to taking the baton and running with it.
Jim shared, “With over 20 years of business and financial management experience, I bring a track record of success in project management, strategic planning, staff management and government relations.”
A summary of Jim’s experience:
- Honours commerce degree (finance and accounting), McMaster University
- Commercial account manager, RBC, achieving several awards
- President of Alpine Way — Simcoe County, working on successful projects with Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH), deputations for Mariposa House Hospice
- To present position with six years in a senior position as finance and operations manager with CFS Counselling and Wellbeing — Simcoe County
- Several key volunteer experiences that will be an asset to the role such as board member of Huronia Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic and current board chair, organizing committee of Charlee’s Run for OSMH to name a few.
Fitzgerald will officially take the baton from Wendy Timpano on Aug. 19, 2024. Please join us in welcoming Jim to the CDC team.
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