Community Profile
Right: Chamber leader Judy Stevens, who also is the
county's lead economic developer, shares a light moment
with former lieutenant governor Bob Jordan of Jordan Lumber
An
Unlikely Choice Becomes
the County's Perfect Promoter
Judy
Stevens is the economic
developer in the minivan, and her choice of vehicle says more about
her than you might guess.
Is she reserved? Well, much like the product she’s selling —
Montgomery County as a business destination — she’s sensible,
prudent, and more about reality than flash.
Is she motherly? Definitely. She made sure the CEO of Montgomery
County’s newest industry, Homanit, had a Christmas gift for his wife
from potteries located in nearby Seagrove. She even picked it out.
But for Stevens, the reason for her six-passenger white van is simple:
“I just always want everyone to be together.”
When she was picked to be the executive director of the Montgomery
County Chamber of Commerce and head economic developer in 1993,
Stevens was both a perfect choice and an unlikely selection.
She’d worked at the chamber for a year, but as the office’s
administrative assistant. Her on-the-job training was the only
preparation she had.
On the other hand, she was the perfect choice to be the community’s
top cheerleader. A former homecoming queen at East Montgomery High
School, she’s lived in the community her whole life, along with
eight brothers and sisters. She’d raised her three children there,
been a successful business owner with Judy’s Ladies Apparel in
Biscoe for 10 years, and chaired the Montgomery County Board of
Education for another six years.
“I’ve never known Judy to do anything halfway,” says Frank
Kersey, mayor of the town of Star and a neighbor who’s known Stevens
and her husband, Gerald, for 30 years. “Judy knows the county better
than anyone else, and she’s the best example of what we have to
offer.”
Stevens quickly fell into her new leadership role, earning
scholarships from the North Carolina Economic Developers Association
to attend economic development courses at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Oklahoma.
She put what she learned into action, starting the Committee of 100,
an organization that gives private citizens a venue to be involved in
economic development, and initiating a Leadership Montgomery program.
To make sure those in Raleigh with the power to point new business and
other resources her county’s way remembered small Montgomery County,
she started a tradition of taking baskets of peaches grown in Candor
to state elected and appointed leaders each July.
Back at home she’s got her pulse on everything. “We have a running joke that anytime we go somewhere I have to drive
because she stops to talk so much I’ll never get where I’m
going,” says Hazel Spivey, who took Stevens’ place as the
office’s assistant. “Getting to work with Judy is one of the
benefits of my job.”
Stevens says she loves the close-knit community, and enjoys bumping
into friends and business associates throughout the day. On her way to lunch recently she crossed paths with the Chevrolet
salesman who sold her the minivan. They decided to have lunch
together, and there ran into an employee at the county’s new Homanit
plant. The fellow knew someone who was shopping for a car. Stevens
made all of the right connections, developing the local economy on a
small scale that day.
“The people who are the best sales people are the ones who love what
they do,” says Stevens. “I always say you have to know your
product to sell it, and we have a good product to sell.”
-- Laura Williams-Tracy
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