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ZEELAND - He had been on the job a little more than a week when he got the phone call.
Haworth Inc., one of the area's largest and most venerable employers, was preparing to make a major decision on plant closures and consolidation and had narrowed the choice for relocating the work to Michigan and Arkansas, the caller told Randy Thelen.
The new chief executive officer of the fledgling economic development group Lakeshore Advantage jumped in, quickly making contact with former co-workers at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and working with state and Holland city officials to develop an economic incentive package for Haworth to bring the work to Michigan.
"It definitely puts you on notice. We had to do everything in our power to keep this company in this community," Thelen said as he recalled the sense of urgency that enveloped the rapid development of an economic package for Haworth, one of the Holland-Zeeland area's most successful corporations.
"Everyone realized the importance of this decision and what it would mean for the community. So we weren't going to leave any stone unturned," Thelen said.
Thirty days after he took the first call, Thelen stood quietly in the back of a conference room at Haworth's corporate headquarters as Gov. Jennifer...