Randy Bruns sees LEADS ‘evolution’

New eco-devo chief will build on Crews’ work

CHEYENNE — Randy Bruns, the new president of Cheyenne LEADS, says changes at the Cheyenne-Laramie County Corp. for Economic Development will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

“I’ve seen LEADS change and evolve over the last three years, and that will continue to happen. In fact, it needs to,” Bruns told The Northern Colorado Business Report.

Bruns, formerly the vice president of LEADS, was named to the top spot by the LEADS board Feb. 8 after the retirement of longtime president Jack Crews.

“I told the board I didn’t see any need for revolutionary change in what we do, but I also don’t think we should stay static because the world changes and we learn,” he said. “The environment we’re working in changes, and we need to stay out in front of that so we will continue to change.”

Bruns, 55, joined LEADS in 1999 after more than 11 years service at Unicover, managing the company’s marketing efforts in 32 countries as international vice president. He is president-elect of the Wyoming Economic Development Association and is vice president of the Rocky Mountain District Export Council.

Bruns previously was a partner in Bruns Land & Cattle Co. in Chappell, Neb., and taught art and coached football in Lincoln, Neb., Puerto Rico and Germany. He was a member of the Nebraska Board of Educational Lands and Funds, the equivalent of the Wyoming Land and Investments Board.

New tools

In announcing Bruns’ appointment, LEADS board chairman Paul Howard said Bruns brings “a whole set of new tools” to LEADS. “This is a real opportunity to take LEADS to the next level,” Howard said.

Bruns said he draws on all his experience as an economic developer, and he especially welcomes the opportunity to follow in Crews’ footsteps.

“Jack was a fantastic mentor, and he made me feel like a partner here,” Bruns said. “He pushed me right out in front, and by the time he decided to retire, this really felt like my organization, too. I forever will be grateful to Jack.”

One of Bruns’ first tasks will be to fill the vice president’s job, which could be restructured. Bruns said he wants somebody who will mesh with him and LEADS communications director Mary Roggenbuck and compliment their skills, and he views the search as an opportunity to “assess the work we do and how we divvy up that workload.”

Longer term, Bruns sees LEADS continuing to stay in touch with the community and continuing to focus on its primary mission of expanding the community’s base of quality jobs.

“LEADS has to stay engaged in the community,” he said. “That’s how you maintain support and how you stay in touch with what the community wants and needs.

“Our day-to-day mission is jobs,” he said. “That hasn’t changed and won’t change. We want to build on what we’ve done right and tweak those things where maybe we can make improvements.”

Bruns plans to continue marketing Cheyenne and Laramie County as the northern anchor of the Front Range and “chipping away” at the perception that Wyoming is more of a tourist attraction than a business location.

Expand parks

Another top priority will be to continue efforts to develop and expand infrastructure, including new business parks to accommodate future economic-development growth in Cheyenne and Laramie County.

“With the successes we’ve had in the last year and a half, we’ve gone from a business park that was just beginning to see its potential to already needing to think about a second or third business park long term,” Bruns said.

But he emphasized that LEADS isn’t just focusing on developing its own business parks. Of the 24 companies recruited by LEADS over the last 10 years, only eight are in the Cheyenne Business Parkway, he noted.

“If you look at our primary mission, as important as that business park has been, it’s just one tool that we have,” he said. “We’re proud to be custodians of that for the community, but our mission is jobs, and those won’t all be, nor should they be, in that business park or the next business park.”

Another continuing priority for LEADS is to serve as a bridge between private industry and public institutions.

“That’s a role we take seriously, and it’s also what makes us effective,” he said. “Private business is comfortable talking to private business, and we can be their interface to the public entities.”

Bruns also sees a “crucial” need to maintain and build a quality work force.

“We have to grow in steps,” he noted. “We can’t take it in too big chunks, because we don’t have the work force.”

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