In the summer of 1981, Marc Jaffe, current president of Jaffe Financial Services, joined Lingle Real Estate and shortly thereafter, the Red Carpet Taskforce, a committee dedicated to bringing jobs to the small town of Richmond, Indiana. The plan was to market the best and most convenient locations in the Richmond area.

The mission quickly expanded. Jaffe and his friend and mentor, Paul Lingle, partnered with the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce, as well as local and state officials to attract commercial and industrial businesses to eastern Indiana.

 “We started with our current network of contacts,” said Jaffe. “Then, we reached out to global decision makers of large restaurant chains, distribution centers and manufacturers who were expanding. We developed a strategy and executed it to a tee.”

The Red Carpet Taskforce, along with Jaffe and Lingle, successfully brought nearly 4,000 jobs to the Wayne County Area.

Jaffe, Lingle and the other Wayne County community leaders used every avenue they had to advertise to expanding companies in the ‘80s; face-to-face meetings, cold-calling, flyers, brochures and the list goes on.

Today, the Red Carpet Taskforce has morphed into the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) of Wayne County, Indiana. While some of the old-school ways of development are still used, the EDC has an in-depth website and a dedicated EDC marketing committee that recently launched its new marketing blitz to food processing and distributing companies.

“The essential piece to our plan was that we were honest,” said Jaffe. “We had a great story to tell, great locations to offer all packaged with a low-cost of living. We marketed the facts. Then, we produced what we said we would.”

The Red Carpet Taskforce of the ‘80s had 5 Fundamentals for Indiana Job Creation that every town and city should adopt in today’s economy.

Jaffe’s life’s- work developed into creating jobs in small town America while helping individuals build their wealth.  Although Jaffe moved to Indianapolis in 1992 to accept a role at Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor, he has continued to participate in Indiana’s economic development. Lingle continues to serve Richmond’s population as a real estate broker, realtor and developer. He continues to help expand eastern Indiana’s residential, commercial and industrial growth.