CEO Tom Skancke resigning in April
Tom Skancke, CEO of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance since its inception in 2013, is resigning his position at the end of April.
“I have accomplished what I came here to do and I’m proud of what we have built here at LVGEA,” Skancke said about the nonprofit organization in an interview.
“We’ve put this organization on a track to long-term sustainability and we’ve assembled an amazing team that is ready to take this organization to the next level,” he said.
The private organization, successor to the Nevada Development Authority, works as the prime clearinghouse for economic development in Southern Nevada. It has a 42-member board of directors that guides policy and works directly with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Skancke said he expects President and Chief Economic Development Officer Jonas Peterson to succeed him as CEO.
Skancke said he was growing weary of “16- and 17-hour days and I’m ready to move on to my next challenge.” He said he plans to take two to three months off before he determines what to do next.
He’ll continue to serve on the Nevada Transportation Department board of directors and on his $360,000-a-year contract as a transportation consultant to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“As for what’s next, I’m going to get some rest and then I am going to do something as exciting, interesting and fulfilling as my work at LVGEA has been,” he said.
The resignation came as a surprise to members of the alliance’s board.
“Tom made a personal call to go out at the top of his game,” said Ray Specht, chairman of the alliance’s board.
“He has done what we hired him to do, which is to take this economic development organization, build a team and put us on a course to more effectively compete in a 21st century global economy,” he said in a statement Saturday.
Skancke said he has been considering leaving the alliance for months and that the public might have gotten an early indication of his departure when he recommended promoting Peterson.
Peterson joined the alliance in 2013 as chief operating officer, coming from the Santa Clarita, Calif., Economic Development Corp. He has received degrees in community and economic development from Penn State University and North Dakota State University.
Peterson also is a graduate of Oklahoma University’s Economic Development Institute and Stanford University’s Executive Program and is a certified business retention and expansion consultant.
In 2010, he was recognized as Arizona’s Economic Developer of the Year by the Arizona Association for Economic Development and as the New Economic Developer of the Year by the International Economic Development Council.
Skancke discounted reports that his departure had anything to do with a rift between the alliance and the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, which have taken different stances on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s call for funding education through increased business license fees.
“I’ll continue to defend the position our board took on the governor’s business license fee,” Skancke said. “Education is important to our future and we have to be willing to pay for it.”
Executives of Switch, operators of a massive data storage facility in Las Vegas, resigned their board positions with the alliance and the chamber of commerce. Skancke said Switch’s top executive, Rob Roy, was disappointed that the alliance and the chamber were not on the same page on the business fee proposal. The company favors the governor’s tax plan. Roy serves on the Governor’s Office of Economic Development board.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta.
