![]() And almost all of it has been bricks and mortar. “We’ve done everything we could to stimulate economic developments in this community. “It’s just the right thing to do,” Chapman said. When Greater Des Moines Partnership CEO Jay Byers calls it the most transformative project we’ve seen, he’d get no argument from them. I sat down with the four water trails project leaders - Steve Chapman, Suku Radia, Steve Zumbach and Allison Fleming - to ask why they are supporting the project and what it means to the area. “This is the most significant project that I have worked or watched in my entire life in Central Iowa,” said Steve Zumbach, a longtime community and business leader and a lawyer at Belin McCormick. After all, Radia says, “At the end of the day, we’ve all been immigrants at some point.After all the projects over the decades - Wells Fargo Arena, the sculpture park, Western Gateway, Principal Riverwalk - the four co-chairs of the Central Iowa Water Trails Incubator’s Campaign Advisory Council say the regional effort to line 155 miles of waterways with 86 well-planned fun spots is the biggest effort yet. “Clearly, this is an issue that is polarizing, but I firmly believe that we need to treat people humanely,” he says. Radia recognizes that current immigration policy is confusing, and as a result, many immigrants don’t fully understand their immigration status, leading to many living in fear of deportation. “Immigrants contribute a lot to this economy,” he says, adding that, “as a country, we have a worker shortage.” The economic argument is also compelling, Radia noted. “That troubles me.” Radia adds that the swelling number of undocumented immigrants underscores the urgency of immigration reform. “We shouldn’t be selective in saying ‘hey, we should only allow people with a certain education,’” he says. “We need to deal with immigration in a systemic fashion,” he says, noting that, in addition to streamlining the immigration process, policy should embrace a humane approach to inclusion. Radia’s immigrant experience also informs his views on immigration policy. Over the span of his career, he has served on over 20 community boards and has been chair of almost two-dozen community and service-based organizations, including United Way of Central Iowa, the Rotary Club, and the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “I’m never going to forget my roots,” he says.Īnd yet Radia is fervently devoted to his adopted country. Though Radia’s career has elevated him to a position of significant influence, he can still remember his youthful self, arriving as a newcomer to the United States. Thus, Radia literally became a man without a country. Just a year after Radia had arrived in Ames, Iowa, Ugandan president Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of Uganda’s Asian minority, forcing Radia’s family to leave. Radia was born and raised in Uganda and then made his own journey as a young man, when he moved to the United States to attend college at Iowa State University. ![]() Four generations ago, his ancestors emmigrated from India to Africa. ![]() In many ways, Radia’s own immigrant roots have helped shape him into the business leader he is today. Radia literally became a man without a country. They are also highly enterprising and have grown Bankers Trust into Iowa’s largest bank. Nineteen percent of his workforce is non-white, and his team speaks roughly 30 different languages. Suku Radia, CEO of Bankers Trust,has made diversity and inclusion integral to the ethos of the company he leads.
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