GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — More than $5 billion dollars and 47,000 jobs can be linked to 'The Right Place' in Grand Rapids.
The woman leading The Right Place for 33 years is Birgit Klohs.
After 33 years of intelligent thinking, connections, commitment and really hard work, Klohs has announced her retirement.
"Well you know 33 years is a long time my husband and I do want to spend some time together. My family is still in Germany. I'm not leaving Grand Rapids. You know when it's right," Klohs said, "You should get off the stage while they're still clapping. It developed really over a year's time. You're here for almost 30 years, I'm here for 33. There is a reason for that and the reason is really the people in this community who work with you and make things happen, drive things forward. that's why we're both still here."
Klohs has been in the Grand Rapids area since 1991. She's been apart of many projects throughout the years, including the major developments on the Medical Mile.
"I was part of the happenings on Medical Mile from the 1st day to the last announcement 20 years later of the Perrigo location downtown, what has happened in our in our health and life sciences cluster, which did not exist 24 years ago," Klohs said.
The Medical Mile is the 10th largest health sciences cluster in the country. Although Klohs is retiring, she'll still be a member on nine boards. Her goal is to continue serving the community, but mostly, it's about continuing to build relationships.
"This is a team sport and the team members are not just my team and my board, but people like you, our business community, our municipal partners, the governor's office, so it's really built on relationships and to continue to nurture and to make sure the mission of the right place to create opportunities for all continues," Klohs said.
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