Rob West, President and CEO,
has served as APEX’s first President and CEO since 2004. It culminates a long, entrepreneurial career in marketing, manufacturing and business ownership that spans more than 30 years.
Armed with a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University and service as an officer in the United States Army, Rob West formally began his professional life at First National Bank in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he rose to Vice President and Marketing Officer.
In 1974, he joined Gilmore Advertising in Kalamazoo as Vice President and Account Manager, working primarily with financial and business-to-business clients. He later helped open a branch office in Rockford, Ill, which quickly grew to more than $6 million in annual billings. West and four partners acquired the Rockford office, forming a new agency, called West, Gentry and Morris. It focused on financial, manufacturing, high tech, aerospace, machine tools, and hardware clients.
West sold his majority share in 1985 and acquired Harris Advertising, a $6.25 million business-to-business agency in Minneapolis. Under his leadership, it attracted large clients, including General Mills, four divisions of Cargill, and Medtronic. He sold the agency, which had capitalized billings nearing $20 million, to Carmichael Lynch Advertising and assumed the position of Executive Vice President on a one-year management contract.
West left Carmichael Lynch to form Insight Strategy Group, a strategic marketing consulting firm. In 1997, he invented a line of storage and organizational houseware products and founded Westerlund Products Corporation. Under his leadership, the company raised nearly $10 million in private equity and received 16 patents. Products were sold under the brand name HomeScape through major national retailers, including Target, Menards, and Home Depot. He and his shareholders sold the business in 2002.
West and his wife, Mary, moved to Duluth in 2003. He taught in the marketing department at the University of Minnesota Duluth and worked in account management at H.T. Klatzky & Associates before being recruited to head the new Area Partnership for Economic Expansion in 2004.
In October 2006, West participated in the Blandin Community Leadership Program, sponsored by the Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids, Minn. The program encompassed training in effective and cooperative communication, conflict management, networking, stakeholder analysis, and individual leadership development planning.