WINSLEY DURAND, EXECTIVE DIRECTOR OF REACH
PAYING IT forward
WINSLEY DURAND III BUILDS LEGACY OF MENTORSHIP With a career at the Greater Omaha Chamber spanning 15 years, Winsley Durand III has made his mark investing in others with the REACH program aimed toward small businesses. Throughout his career, Winsley Durand III has always invested in others. Through roles with the Greater Omaha Chamber and his “intra-preneurial” venture REACH, his mission has been to apply his skills and resources to help others overcome adversity, learn the ropes and succeed in business. Durand, REACH’S executive director, has worked for the Greater Omaha Chamber in some capacity for 15 years. Prior to his current job, he served as the chamber’s director of minority development and director of retail attraction, engaging in the group’s domestic and international business attraction efforts and military affairs activities. His wide-ranging impact on chamber efforts earned him Midlands Business Journal 40 Under 40 honors in 2008.
Since then, Durand founded REACH, an education-based capacity-building program for small and emerging businesses. It brings together many of the same tasks that were scattered through his various other roles within the organization. “In a prior life, I worked with a lot of contractors. We had a lot of small contractors that would come to me and ask for assistance,” he said. “David Brown, chamber CEO, was talking with the superintendent of schools and chancellor of the Med Center and mayor of Omaha and they were all saying how they were having a problem finding enough contractors, especially minority contractors. [Brown] said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a guy who can help devise a plan for you.’”
ASSISTING SMALL BUSINESSES
REACH initially just brought together both sides of the contractor equation, but it soon became apparent there were knowledge gaps to be addressed among small business owners.
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