Springs &Co.

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jun 6, 2005 | by THE GAZETTE

CEO MINDFUL OF HIS ROOTS

Radio Shack's new CEO, Dave Edmondson, wants never to forget where he came from -- Security, where he started his first business.

"My greatest fear is losing myself and why I wanted to be here," Edmondson said last week when The Gazette caught up with him in Fort Worth, Texas. He assumed the post in May. "You have to be careful not to believe in your own press clippings," he said.

Edmondson, 45, started a bicy- cle shop behind his parents' home at age 14. Growing up in Security taught him "the value of hard work and that everyone is not as fortunate as they would wish."

Edmondson's mother, Jeannette, who still lives in Security, always knew her son would "be something big." She tells how he liked to ride in the back of the family car "because that's where the rich person sits, and I was practicing."

Practice does make perfect.

FORD CUTS CALL CENTER JOBS

Ford Motor Credit Co. has quietly cut the work force at its Springs call center by about 250 during the past nine months.

The Ford Motor Co. subsidiary opened the center in the Inter- Quest business park in 1999 and employed 1,000 people there as recently as August. In 2000, it expanded its lending into a variety of areas, including mortgages.

It halted that expansion in 2002, after the first loss in its 42- year history, and went back to making loans to Ford buyers. Most of the local cuts came from not replacing departing employees.

GRIFFIS/BLESSING TURNS 20

Griffis/Blessing Inc., Colorado Springs' largest apartment landlord, is throwing a party for its 20th anniversary.

The real estate giant is renting the historic downtown City Auditorium for its June 24 bash.

President Steve Engel said the company plans to invite more than 1,000 people and needed room.

And, "It's consistent with our support of community assets and downtown," Engel said.