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SubscribeNew Man in Town |
| Bozeman, MT, 1/31/2010 |
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When Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce representatives say their new CEO is a team player, they aren't kidding.
Daryl Schliem is a former defensive linebacker for the NFL's Chicago Bears. He played with the Bears for two years, from 1982 to 1984. Had he not gotten injured, he could have been on the 1985 team that won Super Bowl XX. Schliem was signed by former Bears coach Mike Ditka and played with legends like Walter Payton, Jim McMahon and Richard Dent. "I had the best seat in the house behind Mike Singletary," Schliem said, referring to the linebacker then known as "The Heart of the Defense" for the Bears and who now coaches the San Francisco 49ers. But Schliem's gridiron glory isn't something he flaunts. "It's not something you'll know about me in the first interview — I don't bring it up. I don't brag about it," Schliem, 48, said last week, sitting in his office at the chamber building at the corner of North 19th Avenue and Baxter Road. Schliem, who grew up on a dairy farm in the tiny town of Wiota, Wis., would prefer to be known these days for his economic development achievements, such as getting Gander Mountain to build a store in Corsicana, Texas, when he led the chamber there. Paul Hooper, who took over for Schliem at the Coriscana chamber, said Schliem also helped persuade Home Depot to build a store and distribution center in town. He said Gander Mountain and Home Depot coming in created jobs, filling the huge hole created when the K-Mart store closed and 1,000 jobs disappeared. "Daryl was very good at building alliances," Hooper said. "He had a strong following of a lot of very influential people in our community. He knew who they were, built relationships and they worked together." While working for the chamber in Texas, Schliem said he tripled membership, from 283 in 1998 to more than 900 in 2005. BUSINESS CONSULTANT As of last Tuesday, three weeks into his new job at the Bozeman chamber, Schliem had met with 71 people he identified as local stakeholders, from chamber members to local government and university officials, asking them what they wanted the chamber to do. He had just rushed back from a Gallatin County Commission meeting and planned to meet with representatives from the Downtown Bozeman Partnership and TechRanch, a nonprofit business incubator, later that day. "He's all about working as a team," said Jennifer Sipes, operations director for the Bozemanbased Central Asia Institute and a member of the committee that selected Schliem. "We were looking for a very strong leader that could come in and make some significant changes," Sipes said. "Economic development for our community was huge." Schliem has a degree in business management from the University of Wisconsin. His past experience includes serving as vice president of the Aurora, Ill., chamber of commerce in addition to being CEO of the Corsicana chamber. And, nine years ago, just after taking over in Corsicana, he also started his own business consulting company, D&D Consultants. As a consultant, he said he helped negotiate public tax incentives for businesses looking to expand or open up shop in a town. He's worked on deals to build multi-million dollar projects, from a baseball stadium to a casino resort. And he's seen hard times. From 2005 to 2008, he was senior vice president of business development for Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev. When the recession hit, he said he had been working on a $100 million renovation for the resort that was to include the world's highest water park and largest exotic car collection. The company wound up having to turn the hotel over to the bank, but the move saved the company from bankruptcy and allowed all the employees to keep their jobs, Schliem said. "It could have been a lot worse," he said. WELL-CONNECTED Schliem is a workaholic. He and his wife Debra, a horse trainer and judge, left Texas for Bozeman on New Schliem Year's started Day. work on Jan. 4, right after they arrived, and most days since then, he said he has worked from sunup to sundown. He and Debra have been married 10 years with a blended family of three adult children. Long hours are just the nature of the job, Schliem said. But when he does have a spare moment, he likes to golf — though he admits he's not very good — and fish. These days, he's into sports that don't involve being blocked by a 300-pound offensive lineman. In 1984, Schliem took a hit that ended his football career. Doctors found blood clots in his chest, gave him emergency surgery and ultimately had to remove the top pair of ribs under his collarbone. In his day, Schliem was a three-time All American , twice at now-closed Milton College in Milton, Wis., and once as a Kodak All-American at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. And over the years, Schliem's business deals and NFL connections have helped him meet the right people. He has a thick Rolodex of contacts, something he plans to use when trying to attract new companies to Bozeman. "Out of the Fortune 500 Companies, I can probably call 100 of those and get directly to a decision maker," he said. A few companies are already looking at possibly relocating to the Bozeman area, Schliem said. And though he doesn't think Bozeman will recover from the recession until early in 2011, he's hopeful. "I think we have some very exciting things coming," he said. "I believe you have to have that optimistic view to pull through times like this." |
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Source: Bozeman Daily Chronicle |