Special Cedar City Business and Economic Development Ambassador

CEDAR CITY - South Korean businessman Chin Ho Lee is taking a whirlwind tour of Cedar City Thursday and today to learn about the unique qualities that make it a place to recommend for business ventures.

Shortly after his arrival in Cedar City on Thursday, Lee met for lunch with Mayor Joe Burgess and Economic Development Director Brennan Wood, as well as city council members and former Mayor Gerald R. Sherratt. During a brief ceremony in the council chambers, Lee was awarded with a framed certificate naming him Special Cedar City Business and Economic Development Ambassador.

Wood said Lee has business contacts that would take years for people in Cedar City to establish.

"He can build a relationship with an audience that we really can't reach at our level," Wood said.

Burgess said, "We're hoping he can go back to Korea and promote Cedar City for economic development."

Lee is an American citizen who has served in several capacities with the FBI and is now living in South Korea. He said last year he was in America visiting his friend Wayne Wickizer, a former FBI colleague who runs a trading company. He said he was looking for a business project with a city, and Wickizer picked Cedar City as a good choice for business development.

Lee said in his diverse career he has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people, and he came here this week to learn more about Cedar City so he could connect his business contacts with the city.

Wickizer works with an export company called Western Trade Partners. He said he was looking for a unique city that is along the Interstate 15 corridor in Utah for Lee's project. He was also looking for a city with rail and air service, a hospital, a university and outdoor recreation.

"You have it all," he said. "You're a very, very unique community."

Wickizer said his plan is to "let nature take its course," and if Lee comes in contact with people in Asia who are interested in the resources Cedar City has to offer, he can help them make that connection.

Lee primarily expressed interests in medicine, education and manufacturing, so his first stop on his tour through the city was Valley View Medical Center, where Administrator Jason Wilson showed him the center's many facilities, from the laboratory and radiology services to the hospital and cancer center. When informed that all the hospital's 48 beds were in private rooms, Lee said it was "first class."

He said he was particularly interested in laboratory and radiology services because they reveal lots of things about the human body and was impressed by the way Valley View provided those services.

Other stops scheduled in Lee's two-day tour include Southern Utah University where he is meeting with President Michael T. Benson and Asian students, the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the administration and board of the Iron County School District.

Cathy Wentz • cwentz@thespectrum.com • Published: March 11. 2011 4:55AM