The Greater Des Moines Partnership stayed inside the organization and selected Jay Byers as its new CEO and Gene Meyer as its new president.

Byers is currently the Partnership’s senior vice president of public policy, and Meyer is the vice president of strategic initiatives for the Partnership.

Meyer will report to Byers, with the moves taking effect on Jan. 23.

The tandem replaces former president and CEO Martha Willits, who announced in June she would be retiring at the end of 2011 after seven years with the organization.

A search committee, headed by Partnership board chairman Larry Zimpleman of Principal Financial Group Inc., worked with executive search consulting firm Waverly Partners LLC to vet candidates from Iowa and across the country.

Zimpleman said the committee ultimately settled on dividing the CEO and president duties between the two internal candidates because of the sheer volume of projects the Partnership will be working on in the upcoming years.

“We have important initiatives going on — with the continuing need of implementing Capital Crossroads and with 2012 being the year we begin a new five-year investment campaign, and we’ll have new initiatives coming at us from the governor and the state in terms of education reform,” he said. “We need to ramp up our level of experienced leadership.”

Zimpleman said the Partnership’s needs aligned perfectly with the experience and background of Byers and Meyer, who were already familiar with the issues and could “hit the ground running,” adding that the search committee was very happy with its decision to promote from within.

“The best measure of health and success of any organization is if you’re able to make a leadership transition with internal candidates,” he said.

Zimpleman added that Byers experience “developing best-in-class economic development programs,” combined with Meyer’s “proven relationships to assist at this critical juncture in Central Iowa’s development,” would be a strength of the tandem.

Byers was hired as senior vice president of government relations and public policy for the Greater Des Moines Partnership in February 2005. He currently serves on the American Chamber of Commerce Executives’ board of directors, and served as that organization’s chair of government relations division last year.

“I am excited to serve in this new role with my longtime friend and colleague, Gene Meyer,” said Byers in a release. “We look forward to working with the Partnership investors, Board of Directors, professional staff and all our regional public and private partners to build on Greater Des Moines’ many successes and propel Central Iowa into the future.”

Meyer joined the Partnership staff in March 2011 as vice president of strategic initiatives. He has supported the Partnership’s roles in implementing the region’s strategic vision plan, “Capital Crossroads: A Vision for Greater Des Moines & Central Iowa,” in elevating the alliance between business and education in Central Iowa and in developing strategic direction for the next phase of the Partnership’s work.

Meyer has extensive professional and political experience in regional strategy development and implementation. He was elected to the West Des Moines Community School District’s Board of Education, serving three terms between 1988 and 1997, and served as mayor of West Des Moines between 1997 and 2006.

“Exciting opportunities await us, and Greater Des Moines is well positioned to move to a new level of success,” Meyer said in a release. “I’m excited to partner with Jay Byers, business, education, and political leaders along with the entire Partnership staff as we together work for the good of the region.”

– Business Record staff writer Chelsea Keenan contributed to this report