John DeDoncker calls on Quad Cities business community to ‘pull the oar together’

John DeDoncker, Midwest Division President for TBK Bank, has a unique vantage point on the work of the Quad Cities Chamber. Not only is his company a Chamber member investor, he also helms the board for Quad Cities First, the Chamber’s economic development division.  

It’s this combination that allows him to see the work taking place behind the scenes to grow the region as a whole.

“If our Chamber was merely what some communities have, which is a networking social club, I don't know that I would be as interested in making the investment of time and money into the organization," said DeDoncker, who also co-chairs the Chamber’s Together We Win investment campaign. “But in our case, one of its primary roles is economic development.” 

DeDoncker points to the deliberate work being done by the organization to attract and retain businesses to our six-county area.

“To have an entity that looks at what are we good at, how do we get better at it and how do we make it grow … that to me is very important. And that's one of the reasons I believe in the Chamber and what the Chamber does.”

The Together We Win campaign launched in 2019 after the Chamber set these ambitious goals in alignment with the Q2030 Regional Action Plan:

• 500,000 population
• $40 billion gross regional product (GRP)
• 25% engagement of employers in the six-county region

So far, 58 companies have committed investments in the Chamber to help win the race for talent and economic prosperity, accounting for 68 percent of the Chamber's goal of $2.9 million per year in member investments. 

Joining DeDoncker as the other co-chair of the investment campaign cabinet is LaDrina Wilson, Vice President for Student Services at Black Hawk College. 

DeDoncker, a proud lifelong Quad Citizen, cites the Chamber’s leadership in thinking regionally as another top reason for companies to invest; dollars are spread across work done on behalf of the whole area. 

“When Illinois and the Iowa chambers got together a decade or so ago, it really said, 'OK, we do better as a region than we do as five independent cities.' It makes an investment in the Chamber a very high return on investment.”

It’s this belief in a team effort that drives him.

“It really does take all of the businesses in the Quad Cities to pull the oar together. You can't just have a few big businesses pull it alone. And so I really have come to appreciate that when together we win, we do need to all do this together.”