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Ron Kitchens, CEcD
Chief Executive Officer
Email: rkitchens@swmfirst.com
Ron Kitchens is the Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Michigan First and the General Partner of the Southwest Michigan Life Science Fund. Ron has successfully navigated the world of business and community development for over 25 years, working with such national leaders as Scholastic, Koch Industries, GE Capital, Citi Group and Wal-Mart. He has been extensively featured in over 100 national and international media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, CBS News, NBC News, FOX Business News, USA TODAY, Foreign Direct Investment, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, The Economist and National Public Radio.
Ron's recently published book, Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond, highlights Southwest Michigan First's economic development strategy and his columns appear bi-monthly in Business Review. He can be seen weekly in West Michigan as the host of Business First, Sunday mornings at 9:05 am during CBS Sunday Morning on NEWSCHANNEL3. Ron's readers and viewers number over 300,000 monthly.
In Community Capitalism: Lessons from Kalamazoo and Beyond, the groundbreaking economic development strategy, Community Capitalism, employed by Kalamazoo, Michigan to revitalize its economy during recent years is put in the national spotlight. 
