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Salute to Business
Chamber honors Valley leaders
By Karl Henkel
BOARDMAN
The date was Aug. 14, 1987. The time was 2 p.m.
Warren Anderson, president of Anderson-Dubose Inc., one of the newest business additions to the Mahoning Valley, remembers the day as if it happened yesterday.
It was that day that he told his boss to shove it.
Or, in Anderson’s words, which he modified slightly for the audience of 400 at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s annual Salute to Business breakfast Thursday at Mr. Anthony’s, he told the boss to “shut the front door.”
As quickly as Anderson, upset over a story assignment from his boss, a general manager at a Hartford, Conn., television station, mustered the confidence to tell off his boss, his boss returned the favor and just as quickly ended Anderson’s 20-year media career.
Some 24 years later, it doesn’t seem like such a bad decision.
Anderson, company owner since the mid-1990s, now annually registers more than $300 million in sales as a major supplier to food chains McDonald’s and Chipotle.
“I probably would have done it differently,” Anderson said of his exit from the media world. “But the end result turned out OK.”
The chamber honored Anderson as its Business Professional of the Year after his $28 million investment in a new facility at the Ohio Commerce Center in Lordstown.
The project, which is expected to be completed by April, will house 160 well-paying jobs in the Valley.
The chamber also honored Donald French, the former executive director of the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp., who recently retired after 31 years on the job.
Under French’s more than three decades of leadership, the MVEDC helped bring 2,000 businesses and 20,000 jobs to the Valley.
“When you put 31 years into a dedicated effort, you’re pleased to see that there’s certain results,” said French, who received the Business Advocate of the Year award.
“There were 2,000 companies and 20,000 jobs. These are true. But they all happened one at a time,” he added.
Under French’s tutelage, two business parks also came to fruition during his tenure: Warren Commerce Park in Warren and Youngstown Commerce Park in North Jackson.
Also honored was Gordon Wean, president of the Wean Foundation, who received Nonprofit Professional of the Year honors.
“I can’t think of another man [more] committed to this Valley and another foundation [more] committed to this area,” said Tom Humphries, the chamber’s president and CEO. “We’re blessed to have him.”