There’s a version of economic development that looks like a press release, tax incentives, ribbon cuttings, and a quote from a governor.
Then there’s what’s happening in Northeast Indiana.
Over the past several years, the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership (NEI) has been quietly rewriting the playbook for how a region competes, grows, and tells its own story. The results aren’t quiet anymore.
A New Model Gets Its Due
In June 2025, NEI became the first regional economic development organization in Indiana to earn accreditation from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) — one of only 89 organizations in the world to hold the distinction. The IEDC’s own site report didn’t just check a compliance box. It called NEI’s marketing department “a new model for marketing in economic development.”
That’s not a participation trophy. That’s the largest professional association in the field saying: other regions should be doing this.
NEI President and CEO Stéphane Frijia put it plainly: “Over the past four years, we’ve expanded our reach, deepened our impact, and embraced a more collaborative, data-driven approach.”
The region has more receipts. Chief Executive magazine ranked Northeast Indiana No. 6 in the nation for doing business. LinkedIn News named Greater Fort Wayne one of the 25 fastest-growing metro areas in the United States. The Wall Street Journal ranked Fort Wayne the No. 1 housing market in the country in Summer 2024. Indiana earned a top 5 national ranking in aerospace attractiveness. The accolades span industry publications, national media, and independent research.
Betting on Stories, Not Just Statistics
Most economic development organizations lead with data. NEI leads with people. To share the stories of Northeast Indiana, NEI turned to Jonathan Sackett. Sackett, a marketing leader who has pioneered campaigns for iconic brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and other Fortune 500 companies, was tapped to revolutionize how NEI talked about economic development and the region itself.
In 2023, NEI launched PioneerStartsHere.com: a digital storytelling platform built on a simple but powerful idea: the region’s best sales pitch isn’t a spreadsheet; it’s the pioneers themselves.
NEI and Sackett’s team then launched a bi-weekly podcast powered by Pioneer Starts Here. The podcast doesn’t feel like a chamber of commerce production. It feels like a front-row seat to the people building something real.
The show explores the journey of the region’s pioneers — how they got where they are, what they built, and why they built it here. In its first year alone, it released 24 episodes, reaching over 5 million views.
The podcast features pioneers like Ariana McGee, founder and CEO of Navigate Maternity — a Fort Wayne entrepreneur who built a medical device company to reduce maternal mortality rates among Black women. She became the inaugural winner of the Pioneer of the Year Award.
Every movement needs a moment of recognition. NEI created one.
The Pioneer Award celebrates entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. The inaugural winner was McGee. The second year expanded the program. By its third annual event, NEI introduced a new Junior Pioneer of the Year award — signaling that the next generation of builders belongs in this story too. This year’s event introduced its first Pioneer Perseverance Award, highlighting our region’s strong commitment to inclusivity.
This year’s Pioneer of the Year was Edwin Chow, Founder of Summit City Climbing Co., a rock-climbing club that offers supportive environments for all levels of climbers.
The Pioneer Awards aren’t about looking back. They’re about proving, year after year, that Northeast Indiana keeps producing people worth celebrating.
What $92 Million Looks Like When It Works
Recognition is one thing. Capital is another.
In April 2024, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation awarded $45 million to Northeast Indiana through the READI 2.0 initiative. The region had already demonstrated what it could do with state investment — turning $92 million in prior state commitments into more than $1.1 billion in total investment.
Arts United received $6 million to renovate and expand the historic Arts United Center in downtown Fort Wayne. The investment strengthens the region’s arts community, helps cultural organizations still rebuilding after the pandemic, and gives performers and audiences alike a more welcoming home.
Cameron Memorial Community Hospital received an investment to build a new Education and Innovation Center, training the next generation of healthcare professionals and improving community health across the region. The project is developed in partnership with Trine University, which is opening its own College of Health Professions in Fort Wayne. Same shortage, two institutions building the fix.
That is the result of infrastructure, alignment, and a region that knows how to execute.
The Companies That Already Know
The pioneers are just entrepreneurs. Some of them are billion-dollar companies.
Parkview Health, Steel Dynamics, L3 Harris, Zimmer Biomet, GM. Five companies representing healthcare, steel, defense, medical devices, and automotive. All of them in NEI. They chose Northeast Indiana and they continue to invest here.
That’s the reality that rankings, awards, or podcasts can’t manufacture. When companies plant their flags and stay, it means something. It means the story isn’t just good marketing.
It’s true.
The Throughline
What makes NEI unique isn’t any single award or initiative. It’s the sum of its parts.
The accreditation, the podcast, the Pioneer Awards, the storytelling platform, the capital investment. All these efforts connect, and they all reinforce the same idea: Northeast Indiana isn’t waiting to be discovered. It’s pioneering in real time.
NEI’s mission is to build, market, and sell Northeast Indiana to increase business investment. Collaboration is the region’s secret sauce.
In a time when many regions are competing for attention through press releases and incentive packages, NEI is doing something different.
It’s raising pioneers. And it’s showing the world exactly who they are.
Want to be the first to know about what is going on at NEI and our region? Sign up for the NEI Newsletter and Blog below.
