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The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center - St. Louis (AMICSTL) announced today that Tracy Henke — Chief Policy Officer for Greater St. Louis, Inc. and President of its ChamberSTL Initiative — has been named Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Executive Director. In this role, Henke will lead AMICSTL’s day-to-day operations, including programming, building construction (which will be an investment of more than $50 million in the North Central Corridor of St. Louis City), and support fundraising efforts. Henke brings more than two decades of experience with a consistent record of positioning organizations for success, building accomplished teams, and delivering results.
“Tracy’s proven track record of building strong relationships and actively collaborating across a multitude of stakeholders to deliver on organizational goals is absolutely pivotal to our efforts,” said Dennis Muilenburg, AMICSTL Board Chairman. “From leading the St. Louis bi-state team in winning the highly competitive federal Build Back Better federal grant, to establishing the U.S. Department of Justice’s victims’ assistance in response to 9/11, to ensuring the implementation of the National Amber Alert system reached all 50 states, and so much more, she has demonstrated over and over again an ability to deliver on big missions.”
In her role with Greater St. Louis, Inc., Henke helped lead efforts to secure federal and state funding for AMICSTL, in addition to her leadership of the successful Build Back Better federal grant and work with partners like Boeing, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, and our region’s community colleges to support advanced manufacturing across the metro.
“Stated plainly, Tracy Henke gets big, important things done. We could not be happier to know that as we work to strengthen St. Louis as a national center for advanced manufacturing, Tracy will be at the epicenter of the work to make that goal a reality,” said Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis, Inc. “We know that Tracy’s new role will only strengthen the partnership we have with AMICSTL and the metro’s advanced manufacturing sector overall.”
“In the time I have known Tracy, I have seen that she is solution driven. More importantly, she is a servant leader that wants to make a positive impact,” added Kory Mathews, AMICSTL CEO / Executive Director. “I am excited about the fact that she is bringing her tremendous skills to AMICSTL.”
AMICSTL was born out of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership Regional Advanced Manufacturing Partnership initiative and serves as the centerpiece of St. Louis’ award-winning Build Back Better proposal to the U.S. Department of Commerce. That proposal highlighted the St. Louis Regional Tech Triangle spanning advanced manufacturing, geospatial, and bioscience sectors. The 140,000-plus square-foot leading-edge advanced manufacturing facility will be built in the St. Louis North Central Corridor and will be a local asset with national impact. AMICSTL is building "vertical" capabilities in Aerospace, Agtech, Automotive, Biomedical and Life Sciences, Construction, Energy, Geospatial, and Logistics — uniquely generating manufacturing synergies across these sectors.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration provided $7 million for AMICSTL through the Build Back Better Regional Challenge. In addition, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the General Assembly recently approved $15 million in funding, and The Boeing Company has previously announced $5 million to support AMICSTL. In June, it was announced that the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Innovation Center will partner with AMICSTL for research and workforce development in support of advanced manufacturing of pharmaceutical ingredients.
For questions, please contact Kory Mathews at korymathews@icloud.com.