St. Louis' lead economic development group spent nine months searching for a new top boss. The man they found was in another river city a few hours away.

The Regional Chamber and Growth Association Monday said it has hired Joe Reagan, the top official at a comparable organization in Louisville, to be its new CEO. He will start Feb. 1.

Reagan replaces longtime RCGA boss Dick Fleming, who is stepping down at the end of the year. And, on paper at least, Reagan doesn't represent much of a departure from RCGA's current approach.

Since 2005, Reagan has been chief executive at Greater Louisville Inc.. Like the RCGA, it is a private sector-led economic development agency with some public funding, and doubles as the region's chamber of commerce, advocating for business interests. Reagan has worked there in a variety of roles since 1998.

“It's a great American city, with top-notch amenities and a real focus on supporting higher education,” he said. “I thought it was time to bring to St. Louis some of the things that we've learned here.”

In announcing Reagan's hiring, the RCGA pointed to a list of his accomplishments in Louisville that may translate well here. Among them: helping a two-state, 26-county region work together around economic development; boosting focus on education attainment, entrepreneurship and industry clusters; and spearheading efforts to modernize a Ford plant to keep auto industry jobs in the region.

"Joe Reagan is, without question, one of the top chamber and economic development executives in the country," said Danny Ludeman, chief executive officer of Wells Fargo Advisors and RCGA's chairman-elect.

Reagan, 48, was one of nearly 200 prospective candidates, said the RCGA, and his name emerged as a finalist last week as word spread in the Louisville business community that he may be leaving. The other finalist, according to sources familiar with the search, was Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, director of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Reagan actually interviewed for a vice president job at the RCGA about eight years ago. “It wasn't the right fit at the time,” he said Monday, but it helped him grow familiar with the region.

He comes to the job at a time when a growing number of regional leaders are calling for change at RCGA.

The St. Louis County Economic Council recently issued a study that recommended splitting the RCGA's job creation duties from its lobbying and networking functions. And last month, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay called for merging the RCGA's economic development wing with the job-creation arms of St. Louis and St. Louis County.

RCGA board members have pushed back, stressing the group's broad regional mandate and its role as a “neutral broker” among counties that for too long competed with each other over jobs. In an interview Monday, Reagan said St. Louis is best served by pulling together to compete in a global economy.

“These are complex times,” he said. “What unifies a region is when you focus on the outside, on what are our opportunities outside the region and what are our challenges and how can we work together to create a bigger economic pie.”