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Deputy CEO Emilio Vela, right, is due to take over for the retiring Gary Maddox of Southwest Center for Independent Living by year’s end.
Deputy CEO Emilio Vela, right, is due to take over for the retiring Gary Maddox of Southwest Center for Independent Living by year’s end.

Study in Transition: Retiring SCIL CEO trains successor

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Since late March, the leadership of Southwest Center for Independent Living has belonged to two CEOs: one who helped double the number of full-time staff and more than triple its operating budget in the last 10 years, and an Olympia, Wash., transplant charged with taking his place.

After 20 years leading centers for independent living in Missouri – the last half spent in Springfield – Gary Maddox vetted Deputy CEO Emilio Vela as one of only three candidates SCIL’s board of directors interviewed for the job.

Maddox said his successor needed not only a familiarity with nonprofit management, but also specific experience in SCIL’s service area.

“Frankly, it’s not like you can hire someone from a United Way or a (Community Foundation of the Ozarks),” Maddox said. “They can have all the other things, but not understand independent living – the philosophy or the structure.”

As part of bringing Vela – previously executive director of the Washington State Independent Living Council – on board, Maddox and the board agreed on a six-12 month window so the future executive could learn the ins and outs of the organization under Maddox’s wing.

Vela, who knew Maddox previously through the National Council on Independent Living and the Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living, or APRIL, said without the plan, he wouldn’t have made the 2,000-mile move.

“For me to come into this position and the board and Gary to say, ‘We vetted around the country and this is our guy,’ it makes a difference. It gives me credibility,” Vela said.

Attorney Raymond Lampert, who practices in the area of business succession planning, said the coaching method is a proven way to ensure a smooth transition.

“They may know how to do the job, but they’ll need time to learn the specifics, the quirks and the vision the owner and directors have for the company,” Lampert said.

Vision and selection
Maddox began the replacement search about two years ago, after speaking with the board and unofficially interviewing roughly 10 candidates he knew through various state and national organizations.

With three possible choices, SCIL board President Randy Custer said the board interviewed Vela, Springfield South Vocational Rehabilitation Supervisor Kim Conrad, who also had served on SCIL’s board, and a candidate from California in November. Custer said Vela was the clear choice based on prior knowledge of the field working at the state and county level, and his role on the national scene as a board member of APRIL – a position also once held by Maddox.

“The board felt he was not only the man for the job now, but in 10 years,” Custer said. “Gary brought SCIL to a whole different level, and in Emilio you can see SCIL going to the next level.”

With completion of the 10-year strategic initiative he proposed upon taking the CEO job in 2006, Maddox said SCIL needed fresh perspective to continue growing staffing programs and its profile in the local community.

“You don’t want someone to come in, be a dictator and destroy the culture, but at the same time you want a new set of eyes,” Maddox said. “The good thing for us is we have a guy coming in asking, ‘Why do we do it that way?’”

Lampert and John Taylor, who leads the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Drury University, agree whatever changes or goals someone in Vela’s position sets forth, he likely has more time to accomplish them than contemporaries in the for-profit realm.

“For businesses, the window is smaller because stockholders are less patient,” Taylor said. “At a nonprofit, you’re trying to accomplish something based on mission rather than just increasing shareholder value.”

A seat at the table
As he transitions out of SCIL, Maddox expects Vela to expand the abilities of the organization. SCIL ranked No. 8 on Springfield Business Journal’s 2016 list of the area’s largest nonprofits with an operating budget of roughly $7.3 million. It’s growing closer to $8 million now, according to Maddox, but for an agency that represents a local cross-section of 54 million-56 million Americans, he thinks more can be done.

Maddox expects to step down by the end of 2016, and said he’ll likely remain involved with SCIL in some capacity. Going forward, Vela believes Maddox’s expertise could be used to give the disability community a voice in emergency management procedures.

Maddox has previous experience consulting with the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management on accessibility design at the Public Safety Center. SCIL’s new 22,000-square-foot building, which opened in April, is built with a storm shelter basement and backup generator, and can act as a receiving center in the event of a natural disaster.

Vela wants to grow SCIL’s use of assistive technologies – the new center uses a 3-D printer to help build low-tech accessibility modifications for everyday items like cellphone cases – and expand the use and support of consumer-directed services. He also wants to build awareness around SCIL events.

“Independent living is about that social model,” Vela added. “Getting that more well-known and engaging more of the community around it is the way I see things going forward.”

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