Batavia Chamber Member Insider - Meet Nick Ninedorf

Welcome to our new feature – the Member Insider! We are excited for you to learn more about your fellow Batavia Chamber members. We are beginning the series with our hard-working Board of Directors. To gain insight into our esteemed members, we are asking them to answer a total of 20 questions.

This week, we’ll learn a bit more about Nick Ninedorf, a financial advisor and regional leader with Edward Jones Investments. He’s worked there for 10 years and has been a BCoC member for nine of those years. Nick first joined the board in 2013, filling in for a director who left the area.



Of course, we explored his thoughts about the Chamber. Here are a couple of his responses:

Question: What does the Batavia Chamber do better than anyone else?
Answer: Relationships. The Chamber is a vibrant, welcoming community and the staff works hard to make that possible. They have also been an indispensable resource during COVID.

Q: What makes our organization’s mission powerful for you?
A: Batavia is the town I grew up in and started my business. Being a part of the Chamber allows me to give back to the town that raised me and improve the business community.

Q: What is your favorite Chamber event to participate in and why?
A:  I've always enjoyed the Harvest Celebration since we've moved to a farm venue. Always a fun crowd and it's right at the beginning of fall.

Q: Why did you join the Chamber’s board?
A: The Chamber was very helpful for my business when I first started. I liked getting involved and found an opportunity to restart our ambassador committee. When the board position opened up, I was asked to step in, and the rest is history.

Q: If you had unlimited resources, what is the one thing you as a board member would like to do for our business community?
A: More parking for our downtown businesses.

We also asked questions about Nick’s work life; here are couple of his answers:

Q: What motivates you to work hard?
A: I've always been a believer in "how you do one thing is how you do everything" and I just try my best at that. 

Q: What is your favorite thing about your career?
A: The ability to make a big impact in the lives of others and the flexibility that comes with being your own boss.

Q: What’s your favorite part of the workday?
A:  Early in the morning before anyone else wakes up.

Q: What was your first job?
A: In high school, I moved furniture for Skipworth Moving in Batavia.

Q: What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?
A:  "Head west young man. Head west." Advice received when I was contemplating changing my office location from Oak Park to Batavia.

If you’re really going to get the inside scoop on someone, you need to ask some tough personal questions, too. Ok, maybe not so hard-hitting… Here’s a few more member insider answers from Nick:

Q: If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be?
A: Spend the day with friends at Wrigley Field.

Q: What's your favorite fast-food chain?
A: Chipotle, no contest.

Q: What is your favorite book to read?
A: East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

Q:  What is your proudest accomplishment?
In totality, it's my two kids, Emi and Ethan. They mean the world to me. Professionally, it's building my Edward Jones office from nothing to where it is today, starting out when I was only 23 years old and going door to door for three years.

Q: If money were no object, how would you spend the rest of your life?
A: Tinkering.