The talents that earned Christine Cochrane her role as project manager of the proposed South Suburban Airport make her absence from Governors State University’s business liaison efforts conspicuous, according to Southland Development Inc. Executive Director Robert Skurla.
Cochrane, who resigned in November from Governors State’s small-business and commercial lending connection, had a “unique” blend of political, people and business skills, said Skurla, a member of Governors State’s search committee. “They will not be easy to replace.”
Since Dec. 1, she has been heading efforts to attract airline and business support for the state’s proposed regional airport in eastern Will County.
In 1982, Cochrane took over the Small Business Development Center, which supports entrepreneurial efforts in the tricounty area served by Governors State, in University Park. Ten years later, she added the Chicago South Towns Business Growth Corporation, a go-between for business people seeking commercial mortgages and loans. A Service Corps of Retired Executives chapter provides additional business expertise to startup operations.
Cochrane’s political activity includes heading the Will County portion of Dick Durbin’s successful U.S. Senate bid and serving as Monee Township supervisor.
Cochrane, 50, suggested mass layoffs in the early 1980s boosted interest in the Small Business Development Center at Governors State. “It’s a strange phenomena,” she said. “When the economy is bad, self-employment is a very big option. People go back to school or start their own businesses.”
But Cochrane acknowledged the small-business staff never established a reliable measure of its success. Responses to center questionnaires show a high success rate, she said, because they rarely reflect the experience of people who have given up or postponed their business idea.
Cochrane said the South Towns group now is responsible for 30 current loans and has 10 loans pending completion “in the next few months.” Much of that success, she said, is attributable to the expertise of retired Heritage-Glenwood bank President Bill Gordon, who marketed the South Towns program to other bankers.