Retiring Schaumburg SBA president lauded as businesses' helping hand

Laurie Stone's lifelong enthusiasm and optimism have helped carry the hopes of Schaumburg area business owners through a decade that will hardly be remembered as the economy's favorite.

Recruited from the Greater O'Hare Association to the fledgling Schaumburg Business Association during the dark days of September 2001, Stone is now preparing to hand the reigns of the successful organization to new President Tonya Lamia.

Given the strong focus of the SBA on one community, Stone said she hasn't been surprised by its popularity and resiliency even during tough economic times.

"When companies - like people - find themselves in difficult times, they take comfort in sharing connections," Stone said.

But founding Chairman Brian Burke sees Stone herself as the magic ingredient that made the SBA successful so soon after 9/11 - and for so long afterward.

"We knew if we hired her, we'd have instant credibility," Burke said.

But Burke didn't immediately think of wresting Stone away from the well-established Greater O'Hare Association - one of the larger chambers in the state - to run a brand new organization as even a remote possibility, given Stone's status.

"Those were the days I was considered the voice of suburban business," she said of her time running the regional business group.

Burke said he instead was considering hiring Stone's daughter, Andrea, who was then an account executive at the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau.

But Burke and Laurie Stone were old friends from the more regionally focused Northwest Suburban Alliance for Commerce and Industry in Schaumburg, where Stone had been the marketing director for five years before taking the reigns of the Greater O'Hare Association.

At Greater O'Hare, Stone had started the Elk Grove chamber under the umbrella of the larger group. That experience led Burke and other old friends from NSACI to frequently seek out her advice as the SBA was put together by people who thought Schaumburg needed to have its own chamber.

Stone enjoyed the task so much that she surprised Burke by letting him know she'd be interested in playing a more permanent role in this reunion of NSACI alumni.

"Coming here was like coming home," Stone said.

She did leave the SBA for less than a year from May 2003 to April 2004 to work for Alexian Brothers Medical Systems, but she was ultimately welcomed back like a returning hero. In 2006, NSACI dissolved amid shrinking membership and financial troubles.

At the SBA, Sone created a variety of ways for businesses to network and form connections. She's also worked directly on improving the climate for business by having the SBA lobby for better state finances and in opposition to the village of Schaumburg's new property tax.

Nevertheless, she said working with Schaumburg officials has been one of the rewards of her time with the SBA. Even while standing by the necessity for the new property tax, Mayor Al Larson and Village Manager Ken Fritz extended their hand in seeking other ways in which they could improve the environment for business, Stone said.

While business leaders were never happy about the new property tax, they handled their displeasure more diplomatically than did many angry residents.

But Stone said business owners had perhaps a better appreciation than some residents that Schaumburg's lack of a municipal property tax was never something that could be taken for granted.

"The residents of Schaumburg really ought to blow kisses at Woodfield and the whole retail community because it saved them from a much earlier property tax," Stone said.

Though Stone's role as leader of a business community is ending, she will remain the longest-serving member on the Harper College board of trustees in Palatine for at least another three years.

She will share her memories of the SBA's first nine years at its next "Good Morning, Schaumburg!" breakfast Tuesday at Chandler's Banquets. Her successor, Lamia, will also be there to share her vision for the future.

The SBA will ultimately toast - and roast - its founding president at a retirement party May 26 at the Chicago Marriott Schaumburg.

Although Stone will no longer have a formal role with the SBA after May 31, her daughter Andrea Biwer, who joined the SBA herself a few years ago as program director, will be. And both Stone and Burke foresee the possibility of her knowledge and experience being put to future use by the organization.