Q & A with new Montana West Economic Development president Jerry Meerkatz

Jerry Meerkatz is a local business executive with a nationwide career path that led him back to the Flathead Valley.

He remembers working at local Phillips 66 gas stations, all of which have been leveled to make parking lots, including the Valley Bank and KM Building parking lots. Now Meerkatz helps direct the ways business and growth happen in the Flathead.

Meerkatz was hired in August as chief executive officer and president of Montana West Economic Development and Flathead County Economic Development Authority, replacing Kellie Danielson, who moved out of state. He has since been directing the development groups that put on business-support programs, investigating new small business funding sources and getting to know his community through a new career objective: bolstering business in the Flathead.

I've had teams as large as 25,000 employees to small teams of two,” he said. Managing projects has been in my background since I graduated in engineering. I've always enjoyed the project aspect of taking on a problem and solving it.

From pumping gas, Meerkatz took on a job at the Columbia Falls aluminum plant before his engineering acumen brought him to high-tech businesses such as Hewlett-Packard. But one day Meerkatz decided to ditch his engineering hat to help create an environment where people do their best work. He became CEO of several different companies around the United States and Canada before retiring back to the Flathead to spend time with family. Even there, he couldn't resist the call of building people’s dreams and has participated as a coach with the Glacier Startup Weekend event, where budding entrepreneurs test the moxie of their endeavors.

As a mentor and coach, I really enjoyed that work, he said. Of course, that's bringing business into play and that's why I was excited to bring the business aspect. I'm not trained or groomed in pure economic development. I'm trained and have a long history in job creation and business development.

What do you like about management?

Managing people is always enjoyable because it's an opportunity to see people do what they want to do, grow, and give them an opportunity to take on projects that they hadn't taken on before; see them tackle those and become a team. All of that has always been very enjoyable to me.

What are the biggest projects you see right now at Montana West Economic Development and Flathead County Economic Development Authority?

We fulfill a service agreement with the port authority and probably the most well-known of those services is the project management of the core development here in Kalispell and the [Glacier] Rail Park. But as well as that, we are working hard with Susan Nicosia and the group in Columbia Falls on the opportunities that we can create and work on both as the port authority, as well as MWED for the industrial park that we have up there. Those kinds of projects are probably the most important, front-of-mind projects that we've got right now.

What kind of business-support work do these economic development organizations do?

We have a number of startup-type projects that come in every week in all different varieties and sizes. We hear everything from Well, I have an idea to going down a path and looking for some financing, so we do gap financing, try to make unbankable loans bankable by doing gap financing. And, of course, we serve our membership that's over 100 deep at this point; all folks in business around the valley that are interested and concerned about economic growth.

How did you get here?

I was in private business for over 35 years in a variety of high-tech jobs. I started my career as an engineer and went to work for ITT in Arizona for 10 years. Then from there the PC industry exploded and I went to work for Compaq Computer for 15 years, where I rose through the ranks to a fairly important job running their commercial desktop division. I worked worldwide, then along comes HP and purchases compact. I spent two years in that transition and then took the early leave package they offered and found myself back in Montana. I moved my kids and wife back up here and got a role as CEO of a public company ... in British Columbia. I ran that software company for three and a half years, then took a job as CEO of a different startup company for three years. Then I decided I'd had enough of travel between here and Canada, so I resigned and thought I'd come back home and thought I’d get involved with things here in the valley.

Got involved in Stillwater Christian School, a variety of activities and volunteer work for about three years and then went to work again for Thompson Group, where I ran a software company in California there for them for just shy of four years.

Where did you go to school in Kalispell?

We came here in 1961. I went to Trinity Lutheran in kindergarten, went to Hedges, then went to Linderman, then Kalispell Junior High, then Flathead High. I graduated in 1976.

Back at Flathead High, did you have a favorite class?

Math and physics were my two favorite classes.

High school jobs?

I worked in gas stations here. Every one of those locations is a parking lot now. It was full-service gas back then. Then I went to work for the Anaconda Aluminum Plant as a laborer; then I went to college and started getting sucked in. That was a great job at the time.

Did you envision a particular career back then?

No, not a career. I just knew that I wanted to go into engineering and be hands-on. And then as things developed, I was a practicing design engineer, a test engineer for ITT, and I decided this is not at all what I want to do. I wanted to go into marketing and I made the transition. It made project management really easy and exciting for me to do.

It's always great when you find that spot that you know is where you should be. I just went from there and did that in a variety of different roles.

The engineering background gave me the opportunity to be a better leader because I knew what it would take to be successful in engineering. So the appreciation was there, I just felt that that wasn't my spot. My spot was breaking down barriers for engineers to do better designs. Breaking down maybe even economic walls to make sure our designs got to market.

What college did you go to?

DeVry University and engineering courses at Arizona State University.

Aside from engineering, did you have any other pursuits you thought of exploring back in your student years?

I always thought I would go back and get an MBA, but my career took off so fast that before I knew it I had lots of MBAs working for me. I just never got the chance to go do it.

The next time I found myself in school is when I retired from my work in Canada and decided I was done with high-tech. I went to Flathead Valley Community College and got certified in welding with three certifications.

I've never made much money on that; I just did it mostly volunteer or to help people, but I really enjoyed welding.

Any bad memories in your career?

I regret being gone so much at a time when it was important to my kids. I can really identify with the guys that had to leave here and go over to North Dakota to work and come back. But it's a choice you make for your career and I think your kids understand that when they see that even though they miss their dad, they see a dedication and responsibility there. I take that very seriously and always have.

Do you think the recession is over?

Yeah, I think the recession is over. We're in a weird state right now with the election, but I would say that the recession bottomed out and it’s come back up where we're at a plateau right now.

There is a lot of stuff going on. There are a lot of businesses wanting to be here, there's a lot of business activity. There's a lot of excitement about business. There's building going on all over the place. If you look at those markers, we're definitely out of the recession and we're definitely in a growth mode again.

Are there any indicators that look like things aren’t back in the positive swing?

Manufacturing. It is not where it was in 2005 when things were moving forward. But when I say that, other areas seem to be doing really good. Machine parts, there are some good new businesses, and housing, of course. After talking to some of the suppliers, they seem to have had a good summer.

What is the best business advice you ever got?

I learned this early, that people are everything. Your business will succeed or fail based on the morale of your people. So be a good leader.

What is a regular day like for you?

It's a lot of variety. Everything from visiting with our partners at the banks about opportunities and deals, putting on seminars here for a variety of programs and opportunities in economic development.

I serve on a number of boards, communications calls with different boards. I also visit with new businesses and growing businesses.

What do you like most about your job?

It's just all over the map stuff, but the thing I enjoy in all that is you get to visit with all kinds of different people, all of it leading toward problem-solving, around growth and betterment of life in the valley.

What do you like least about your job?

Probably the politics. I say it like that because I'm not sure that I actually know. I have never been a political guy. I've always tried to be anti-political and I’m not talking, Democrat or Republican, politics like office politics. I like to create an open environment and work in a real open, [productive] environment. I think most people do.

How do you foster economic development?

It's probably your hardest question. Am I really fostering it?

I'm trying to do is, number one, be very communicative, be very honest and be open about everything I know and what I've found out and what I think.

Economic development gets created in a variety of ways — money, programs, loans, partnering — all those kinds of things are the way you actually create economic development.

What qualities that do you see in businesses that tend to succeed?

First of all, people that are willing to be very questioning. They have an idea but they're constantly trying to get both sides, a balanced view of how realistic their idea is. Then, being willing to pursue business modeling, which ultimately should result in a business plan. People that are willing to do that, I believe are very serious and they're willing to be honest about what kind of impediments are going to be there, and then formulate a plan on how they are going to get over them.

What challenges do you see for economic development in the Flathead?

A few things. If I said aging population, I mean no disrespect to that, we just do have an aging population. We do have less opportunity for our young, college-educated individuals to come back here and work, so that stands in the way of that kind of growth. Even after they've worked away from here for a while it becomes hard for them to come back and start a business because we have issues with transportation.

I've seen from the Chicago flight they put on here, absolutely a great deal. Now we have the San Francisco direct flight, and that excites me because they go to direct technology hubs.

Do you have any advice for new businesses or startups?

Sounds kind of goofy, but never stop dreaming. Know that these kind of organizations exist like MWED and come in and have a discussion. Be willing to learn, be willing to take advantage of everything.