People In Business

Gov. JB Pritzker has appointed retired judge Donald Wilkerson to will serve on the Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board, pending Senate approval. Wilkerson (shown) was appointed United States magistrate judge in the Southern District of Illinois in January of 2005 and retired in 2019. The East St. Louis native was the first African American judge…

Belleville-based Illinois American Water announced the following promotions within its Operations leadership team: Karen Cooper (shown), formerly senior operations manager in the Southern Division, has been promoted to operations director of the Southern Division and Central Divisions in Southern Illinois. In this role, she has management oversight over the company’s Interurban District (Metro East), Cairo…

Three Ameren employees have been selected to receive prestigious Technology Transfer Awards from the Electric Power Research Institute. Presented annually, EPRI’s Technology Transfer Awards recognize industry leaders and innovators who help companies transform research into results and solutions that can improve the efficiency of power plants, harden transmission and distribution equipment, improve cybersecurity, and enhance…

Illinois American Water has begun rehabilitating water tanks across the state. Water tanks located in Champaign, Pontiac, Peoria and Shiloh will receive face lifts, totaling an investment of approximately $3.7 million. The work, which kicked off earlier this year, will require the tanks to be taken out of service. Customers should not experience an impact…

Because of enhanced personal safety programs and procedures, most commercial construction projects in Southern Illinois generally are progressing on schedule during the pandemic, according to Donna Richter, chief executive officer of the Southern Illinois Builders Association and the Southern Illinois Construction Advancement Program. State and federal guidelines both consider construction work as “essential” during the…

The Bi-State Development Board of Commissioners approved the election of new officers for the 2020-2021 year at a special board meeting on May 21. Commissioner Rose Windmiller (shown), from Missouri, is the new board chair. She replaces former Chair Michael Buehlhorn, from Illinois, who resigned his board position earlier this year. Illinois Commissioner Justin Zimmerman…

To help ease the increased needs of Illinoisans during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has awarded Caritas Family Solutions a $20,000 grant as part of the insurance provider’s $1.5 million COVID-19 Community Collaboration Fund. “The grant will be used to ease the stressors of social isolation caused by the stay…

St. Louis-based Belden Inc., a global supplier of specialty networking solutions, has announced changes to the company’s senior leadership team, effective immediately. John Stroup, previously president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors, has been appointed executive chairman, and Roel Vestjens, previously executive vice president and chief operating officer, has been promoted…

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Felix Lee, PhD, and Tim McPherson, PhD, have received the Graduate School’s Concept Commercialization Award for 2020. The award provides $14,600 through May 1, 2021. Lee, professor of industrial engineering in the SIUE School of Engineering, and McPherson, professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the SIUE School of Pharmacy, have designed an…

SIUE secures nearly $500K from USDA to improve agricultural production, reduce postharvest loss  Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has been awarded $499,113 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture for a collaborative project involving the University of Illinois and industry partners. The researchers aim to create a new…