Half a decade into the joint venture, the Evansville Regional Economic Partnership is sticking to its core mission of growing area communities.
Culling the goals of the former Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana, Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, and Southwest Indiana Chamber of Commerce, E-REP was launched in April 2021 to put those operations under one umbrella. “It was a new concept for us to implement here, driven by the business community who asked, ‘Can we speak in a more collaborative voice?’” says current CEO Lloyd Winnecke, who was serving as Evansville’s mayor when E-REP was born. He became CEO in January 2024. “The chamber wasn’t doing economic development work, but it was doing public policy work that supported economic development. We thought we could be stronger as one organization representing all that we’re doing.”
Winnecke says E-REP — which works in Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick counties — is functioning as originally intended. “This is definitely the framework we need going forward,” he says. “If you talk to people around the state, they like the fact that Southwest Indiana speaks with one voice.”
E-REP has about 800 members. Talent attraction and retention are major areas of focus: Between 2023 and 2025, efforts such as the Belong Here initiative to incentivize relocation attracted 75 households and 181 individuals who had average annual wages topping $110,000.
Additionally, E-REP has guided the area’s pursuit of funds through two rounds of Indiana’s READI program, which altogether have netted $95 million for regional projects targeting quality of life, education and workforce development, and housing. E-REP also is steering the long-term Ohio River Vision initiative to upgrade riverfronts in Evansville, Mount Vernon, and Newburgh.
“The biggest benefit is the regional approach to things, instead of each individual county or pocket in our region working independently,” says Johnathan Pope, president and CEO of the YMCA of Southwestern Indiana. Pope also serves as vice chair of the E-REP board of directors. “We have great synergy with all our city and county governments, and even chambers that are still working independently work well with E-REP and engage in the regional efforts. I think we have a good formula.”
Chris Rutledge, market executive for Banterra Bank’s Indiana region and another E-REP board member, says its performance has been “even better than what we had hoped. Much of the economic development and the continued growth in our region that we have been able to provide, I’m not sure it could have been attained without the merger of the organizations and the processes that have been put in place to grow this area.”
Winnecke credits the vision of E-REP’s original leadership team — CEO Tara Barney and President Greg Wathen. “The work they did out of the gate has really set us up for long-term success,” Winnecke says.
