“Observant, diligent, steadfast, what a brilliant mind.” These words were used by fellow Leadership Tri-Cities (LTC) classmates to describe Paul Harmsen. In the nearly decade and a half I have worked with Paul, I saw a dimension of him that was different and impressive Wednesday evening, June 17, 2015 as he graduated.
I learned at Paul’s graduation that the application process to join LTC was competitive and deliberate. In some years, over 100 candidates have applied and only 25 accepted. The 20th Class of LTC, Class of 2015 was no different with a record number of applicants. This year’s class represented every sector of the Tri-Cities. Together, they successfully lead the most ambitious project in the program's 20 year history.
This team partnered with the Arts Foundation of the Mid-Columbia to host Tri-Art, a Regional Art Contest and Exhibition. This 2 week, multiple venue event occurred May 8 – 23, 2015. Community members were invited to visit 25+ venues, view 40+ artists, with over 55 single pieces of art, in 4 cities and vote for the art they like best. The team had 350 attendees at the kick-off event. They knew art and culture was a major contributor to drive regional economic development. All of this effort resulted in over $50,000.00 raised for the Arts Foundation!
The class reiterated through speeches at the largest graduation event the program has hosted, that they were bigger, brighter and bolder. This was evident as I saw Paul join his classmates in a flash mob dance to “Don’t Stop Believing.” Always a thoughtful leader deliberate when providing input, we will count on Paul to be willing to nudge himself from his comfort zone to demonstrate leadership in action. Don’t doubt that behind the quiet engineering approach Paul brings, he is without a doubt a community leader and a significant and important member of the MacKay Sposito leadership team.