Iowa Wind entrepreneur to have featured role in Monday’s ceremonies
The eight will attend the main inaugural ball and ride the “Our People, Our Future” float in the inaugural parade.
“The National Inaugural Citizen Co-Chairs were chosen for their extraordinary contributions to their communities,” committee Executive Director David Cusack said in a statement. “Whether co-founding a nonprofit to help rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina or serving bravely in our armed forces, each of these women and men reminds us that the strength of America comes from the strength of its people.”
Among the co-chairmen is Rob Hach, the founder of Alta, Iowa-based Anemometry Specialists, a company that provides site assessments for wind turbines. The company, which was named Iowa’s small business of the year in 2010, has 31 employees.
According to a news release on the company website, Hach, who has been in the wind energy business since 1994, met with President Obama in September 2011, when the president made a three-day bus tour through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.
“Policies affect my business and can have far-reaching effects in not only renewable energy industries, but small businesses in every sector,” Hach said at that time. “I believe that, with the other business leaders at the table, we were able to convey that to the president that good policies, and not politics, are what we need to succeed.”
According to Federal Election Commission records, Hach did not donate to either of Obama’s presidential campaigns but did give $1,000 to Rep. Steve King’s (R) re-election bid in 2012.
The other citizen co-chairs for the inauguration are retired nurse Ida Edwards of Virginia; Erica Chain of California, who survived a brain tumor; Lily Griego of Colorado, whose son received Pell Grants; General Motors employee Kenyetta Jones of Ohio; Liz McCartney of Louisiana, co-founder of the nonprofit St. Bernard Project, which provides services to communities hit by natural disasters; Air Force veteran David Hall of Washington, D.C.; and Navy veteran Taylor Morris of Iowa.