British Native Is New Executive at RACDC

British Native Is New Executive at RACDC

Jeremy Ingpen surveys the Randolph scene from the Depot Square Park, one of the first of the 1990s' rebuilding projects in downtown Randolph He began work last week as fulltime executive director for the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. (Herald photo / Robert Eddy)

A former North Randolph man with extensive experience in economic development, both in the U.S. and abroad, is the new full-time executive director of the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. (RACDC).

Jeremy Ingpen, 53, started work Monday as the organization's first fulltime director since Jeff Staudinger resigned the position in 1998. During the last four years, RACDC has had a part time development director and a housing director.

The organization is still deciding how to replace Cristine Maloney, the housing director, who resigned this summer to go to medical school.

RACDC was set up in the early 1990s as a response to three major fires on Main Street. It took a lead role in developing a consensus and finding resources for the redevelopment of the downtown. In the last five years, however, the bulk of its activity has been in housing, including developing the Red Lion Inn on Merchants Row and renovating the Hedding Drive apartments and a 19-home mobile home park.

RACDC's most recent proposal is developing eight units of housing on Pearl and Shattuck Streets, which is part of the former Branchwood Mill site.

Ingpen, a native of England, emigrated to the U.S.—specifically to Chelsea—in 1974, at the age of 25. A year later he moved to North Randolph. During the 1970s, he worked as a labor market economist for the Vermont Department of Employment and Training.

In the 1980s he operated his own management consulting firm, sometimes in connection with the firm of Smith Batchelder & Rugg, assisting with organizational analysis for firms and governments agencies across New England.

In the early 1990s, an association with the Geonomics Institute at Middlebury College introduced him to development officials in Russia, and in 1993 he moved to Russia full-time, working first for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and then, for five years, with the international firm DeLoitte & Touche.

He ran the firm's Moscow office, supervising an $8-million budget, he said, setting up small business advisory centers.

He left Russia when the economy collapsed in 1998. Though the date means little to Americans, he said, "It was catastrophic; everything stopped."

Ingpen then lived for a few years in England before coming back to Vermont, saying that "Traveling is out of my system."

Ingpen said he was attracted to the position partly because what RACDC has done so far is "very impressive."

"It's done much more than you might imagine for a small town," he said, reeling off the organization's successes in development and housing.

Part of his new job will be to make good on a RACDC's new goal to work on behalf of Brookfield and Braintree as well as Randolph.

Ingpen said most of his work will be in economic development, boosting Randolph's readiness and reputation in the search for firms with good jobs.

The town must do all it can, he noted, to be sure that "everything is in place" when a potential employer comes along. "Everything" includes space availability, assistance with permitting, job training, transportation, and housing.

His international experience has shown him how various outposts can have success, such as Finland has had with computer firms.

Assets of the Randolph area, Ingpen said, include excellent transportation (thanks to the Interstate), Vermont Technical College, fine health care, and an "outstandingly beautiful" location.

One key to making the most of those assets, Ingpen cautioned, is intangible—the feeling that this is "a welcoming place" for new firms and new ideas.

And as of now, as executive director of RACDC, Ingpen is firmly part of the welcoming committee.