Fleming Honored for Lifetime of Achievements

For his accomplishments as a developer, attorney and community advocate, Cliff Fleming has been recognized by the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center as the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Winner.

Fleming joins other Entrepreneurial Excellence honorees who continue to prompt growth and development in the region. Winners will be honored at the 19th annual E-Day luncheon Tuesday Oct. 19 at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza. Fleming sees the honor as a way to motivate the next generation.

“The people who shaped my value system are to me why Northwest Indiana is a great place,” Fleming said. “What I am hoping to do is continue the trickle down by getting the next generation involved and trying to provide employment opportunities and quality of life for them so they can raise a family and be close to grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I want to get them involved, get them excited and start to carry the water for the next generation so we can keep it up.”

E-Day celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners as well as advocates who champion for the small business community. Other awards include small business of the year, women in business champion, journalist champion of the year, entrepreneurial success and small business advocate.

NWI SBDC business advisor Jacquie Spearman said the 2010 honorees are an inspiration to the small business community. “It’s been a tough ride for all businesses in the past two years. The fact that these companies have handled these storms and continue to push forward is a testament to their success,” Spearman said. “We need encouraging stories, sunshine after the storm, in order for other business owners to innovate.”

Fleming has been a leader in innovation. His development, The Village in Burns Harbor, is the nation’s first certified green neighborhood. It incorporates his vision for social engineering with key components such as attention to land, community-based amenities, smaller street and pavement widths and traffic-calming measures. He serves as a councilman in Burns Harbor and is president of the Redevelopment Commission and Economic Development Commission.

He is a founding member of the Southlake YMCA and Southlake Mental Health Center and has served on the Crown Point Library Board, Opportunity Enterprises board of directors and Visiting Nurses Association Foundation board of directors. He serves on the Centier Bank board of directors and worked to launch the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s economic development initiative last year while chairman of NIRPC’s Economic Development Committee.

Fleming finds a sense of pride in his accomplishments as a whole and doesn’t feel one stands out as his top achievement.

“It’s a matter of being fortunate to effect change in Northwest Indiana in a number of ways … whether it was the community mental health center, whether it was OE, whether it was the YMCA. All of these institutions make (the region) a better place.”

For more information: www.nwisbdc.org or www.villageinburnsharbor.com.