Is third time the charm for retiring Naperville business leader?
Mike Skarr of Naperville retired as division vice president with Nicor Inc. after about 30 years.
Then he retired after about 11 years as CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.
If that wasn't enough, now he is retiring as CEO of Choose DuPage. He's being replaced by Greg Bedalov and the Aug. 31 board meeting with be his last with the regional economic development alliance.
“Yes, this is the third time I'm retiring,” said Skarr. “Now I know how to do it.”
The longtime business leader is 68 and has worked with nearly every company and nonprofit in the Naperville area since he moved to town in 1980. This latest attempt at retirement doesn't necessarily mean he'll disappear.
“I'll still be doing some things,” he said. “I'll just be taking a little pause first to decompress.”
He'll have plenty of company to help him do that. Skarr and his wife, Mary Ann, have three grown sons and seven grandchildren, who all live in Naperville. Skarr's mother, 91, along with his brother and a sister, also followed him to Naperville.
Business has been at the center of Skarr's world since he and Mary Ann moved from Kankakee 31 years ago.
“I've always had a strong desire to do this,” Skarr said about working with businesses. “Naperville is a world-class community and I felt businesses here just were not well represented. I wanted to help put them on the map.”
And he did.
Besides working on the local level, he's traveled extensively during his chamber years, was appointed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, and served on the American Chamber of Commerce Executives board of directors. He's also won several awards along the way.
While he said he's retiring, he's still retaining his title of president and CEO of Not-For-Profit Strategies and Solutions LLC, an organizational and leadership development consulting firm, and has his eye on another business venture with a software security firm.
“I have my fingers in a variety of things,” Skarr said. “But I just don't want to get back into a 40-hour workweek.”
Are you sure about that?
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FastTrack
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