Schultz Departing from Duties at Intersect Illinois

Effingham's Jim Schultz, Chairman of Intersect Illinois announced he is departing from the one-year-old private/public economic development partnership.

Schultz said he will be leaving day-to-day operation of the agency, but will continue to serve as chairman of the organization.

Schultz joined Gov. Bruce Rauner's cabinet in Feb. 2015 to head the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. A year later he split from the state agency to launch Intersect Illinois to lead the state's job creation efforts.

Here's Greg Sapp's phone conversation with Jim Schultz recorded Wednesday afternoon...

"There are three elements in this news," Schultz told the Galesburg Register-Mail. "When I took the role in the cabinet, I told Governor Rauner I would stay for two years unless he wanted to get rid of me earlier. My role focused on creating the public private partnership and getting it off the ground. And, my background is in startups. Now they have a great need for a professional Economic Development expert. I'll still be involved until May or June, and after that I will remain as chairman of the board."

Intersect Illinois works much like the regional public/private economic development corporations work. Governments and private industry contribute to support and coordinate the organization's efforts in attracting new businesses to the state. They are led by business executives and claim to be much faster at moving on opportunities than government agencies can respond.