Committed to a Greater St. Louis

The Board Chairs of the organizations that combined to create Greater St. Louis, Inc. asked Andrew C. Taylor, Executive Chairman of Enterprise Holdings, Inc., civic leader and philanthropist, to serve as the Founding Chair. The Board Chairs of the combining organizations selected Jason R. Hall and Valerie E. Patton as two of the organization’s top leaders.

Andrew Taylor serves as Executive Chairman of Enterprise Holdings Inc., the privately held business founded by his father and now the world’s largest rental car company. Throughout his career, he’s been recognized for his significant contributions to the business travel industry. Outside of his professional duties with Enterprise Holdings, Mr. Taylor has been a catalyst and philanthropic investor in initiatives that are advancing St. Louis’ regional economy and revitalizing the city’s urban core including the renovation of Soldiers Memorial and the transformation of the Gateway Arch grounds and museum.

Mr. Taylor and six of his female family members are also majority owners of St. Louis City SC, the Major League Soccer expansion team which begins play in 2023. The team’s new stadium, currently under construction, will be the centerpiece of a major development project in the city’s Downtown West district.

Mr. Taylor currently serves as Trustee of Washington University in St. Louis; Trustee for the Naval Aviation History Foundation; Life Trustee of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the oldest botanical garden in the U.S. and among the top three worldwide; and Director of Commerce Bancshares.

Prior to becoming CEO of Greater St. Louis, Inc., Jason R. Hall was CEO and Co-Founder of Arch to Park, a catalytic, civic-minded investment organization focused on economic growth in the urban core of St. Louis. Arch to Park was formed out of a desire by community leaders to create a new center of strategy and collaboration to build a dynamic “central city” to accelerate regional growth.

Mr. Hall previously served as Vice President of Entrepreneurship & Innovation and General Counsel with the St. Louis Regional Chamber; Director and Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development; and Executive Director of the Missouri Technology Corporation.

The first in his family to earn a college degree and the first openly LGBT person appointed to a cabinet-level position in Missouri, Mr. Hall is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates College and Vanderbilt University Law School, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. Mr. Hall served as a law clerk with the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. After his clerkship, Mr. Hall began his legal career at Bryan Cave LLP.

Mr. Hall chairs the Missouri Technology Corporation, and serves on the boards of Tarlton Corporation, Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, the Arts & Education Council, Invest Midwest, and is a member of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Leadership Council.

Valerie E. Patton previously served as Senior Vice President, Economic Inclusion and Executive Director of the Saint Louis Business Diversity Initiative. She leads Greater St. Louis, Inc.’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and programs as well as its foundation, which will be responsible for charitable revenue and an endowment. Ms. Patton founded the Chamber’s Business Diversity Initiative’s Fellows Program (a yearlong leadership development experience for professionals of color) and Gateway Connections (a welcoming orientation for professionals of color.) Both of these are now programs of GSL.

Actively involved throughout the community, Ms. Patton has served as an adjunct professor and instructor at Washington University in St. Louis, Harris Stowe State University and St. Louis Community College, and has held board and trustee positions with organizations including the United Way of Greater St. Louis, Fontbonne University, and Howard University School of Business. In 2018, Ms. Patton was awarded the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Metropolitan St. Louis Chapter’s award for Visionary Community Leadership.

Ms. Patton holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work (MSW), Webster University (MA) and Howard University (BBA) and has done post graduate studies in Business Management.

Valerie E. Patton previously served as Senior Vice President, Economic Inclusion and Executive Director of the Saint Louis Business Diversity Initiative. She leads Greater St. Louis, Inc.’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and programs as well as its foundation, which will be responsible for charitable revenue and an endowment. Ms. Patton founded the Chamber’s Business Diversity Initiative’s Fellows Program (a yearlong leadership development experience for professionals of color) and Gateway Connections (a welcoming orientation for professionals of color.) Both of these are now programs of GSL.