Mountain BizWorks CEO to step down

By Dale Neal

Greg Walker-Wilson always knew he would return to his roots, even as he was building Mountain BizWorks into a nationally recognized organization,encouraging entrepreneurs to follow their business dreams.

OnThursday, Walker-Wilson announced his resignation as Mountain BizWorks' chief executive officer, effective June 1. He plans to move his family to Colombia, South America, where he and his wife will volunteer withthe Mennonite Central Committee for the next three years.

“I spent a couple of years of my childhood in Latin America, where my parents were missionaries. My wife and I met about 15 years ago, and we both had this in common and knew we would do this with our family,”Walker-Wilson said.

In1998 Walker-Wilson took over the nonprofit, which was then known as Mountain MicroEnterprise Fund and had just one other staffer. He built it into an organization that has become a national model in providing counseling and loans for entrepreneurs.

The group has 17 full-time workers and 25 contract workers in offices in Asheville, Hendersonville and Sylva. It worked with 1,000 clients in2008, compared with 750 the previous year.

Except for the lack of a paycheck, Walker-Wilson said his work in Colombia won't be much different from what he's done for more than a decade at Mountain BizWorks. “I'll be doing small-business related work there, on a humbler scale,” he explained.

Walker-Wilson will help low-income residents of Sincelejo, Columbia, set up small businesses such as bakeries and stores.

His wife, Suzanne Walker-Wilson, is a social worker who will work with churches and other organizations aiding victims of violence. Their children, Caleb, 11, and Asher, 8, will attend a Spanish-speaking school. The family will receive living expenses and a small stipend from the Mennonite Central Committee.

Walker-Wilson had worked as a graduate intern with the MCC in Santa Cruz, Bolivia,about 15 years ago. “I already knew and respected how they did development in the Third World,” he said. “It's how we work at Mountain BizWorks. It's respectful, and it's about empowerment.”

Affiliated with the Mennonite Church, MCC is a relief and development agency thatis best known through its subsidiary, Ten Thousand Villages, a network of 150 stores that sell fair-trade products.

While Walker-Wilson has not worked directly with the local Ten Thousand Villages, he said the concept was similar to Mountain BizWorks' own MountainMade Store in the Grove Arcade. “We try to promote the wares of local Appalachian artists,” he said.

Board member John Mark Stroud, a commercial broker for Spake Real Estate,will head the executive search committee to find Walker-Wilson's replacement.

“It will be a big task to find someone to fill his shoes. Greg had a powerful influence in the community to help a lot of people start new businesses. But he's put together a very competent and skilled team tocontinue the work,” Stroud said.

“Greg cannot be replaced, but with change comes new possibilities and the board is excited to move ahead,” said Sallie Broach, chair of the Mountain BizWorks board of directors.

Walker-Wilson said his family plans to return to the Asheville area eventually.

“Maybe in this economy it doesn't make sense to give up a paying job and go bea volunteer, but that's just what our family needs to do,” he said.