A retired Army colonel is the new executive director of a new partnership between the Rock Island Arsenal Defense Alliance (RIADA) and Quad Cities Manufacturing Institute (QCMI).
The alliance – a public-private affiliate of the Quad Cities Chamber – and institute have joined forces to maximize resources of both organizations to drive large-scale economic growth for the QC region. Col. Shawn Creamer (retired from the U.S. Army) has been hired as first joint executive director.
The collaboration between the two entities will help develop the talent of the QC workforce and expand Rock Island Arsenal’s strategic role in the national industrial base and mobilization ecosystems.
Creamer, 52, comes to the new job (based at the Chamber’s Davenport office) after a 30-year Army career, where he was last chief operating officer for the First United States Army, headquartered on the Arsenal, from August 2022 to August 2024.
“Shawn’s experience and time of service in the U.S. Army, especially at First Army and at the Army Headquarters at the Pentagon, gives him unique insights into the strategic importance of many aspects of the Rock Island Arsenal,” Scott Lohman, chairman of the RIADA board, said in a Tuesday release. “He is well positioned to advise the board and guide this organization over the next several years.”
“This partnership between QCMI, the Quad Cities Chamber and RIADA brings together regional economic leadership and a shared commitment to innovation and workforce development,” QCMI board chair Jay Walsh said in the release.
“By aligning our vision, resources and expertise, we will accelerate advanced manufacturing and defense-related technologies that strengthen both the regional economy and national security. Shawn’s appointment reflects that vision. His record of leading complex organizations, forging strategic alliances and delivering results makes him exceptionally well-suited to guide QCMI’s growth and impact.”
“We’ve been asked to deliver innovative strategies that drive economic growth, and the partnership between RIADA and QCMI represents one of the most forward-thinking collaborations in the country,” Chamber president/CEO Peter Tokar III said. “Our combined strengths in manufacturing and defense, guided by Shawn’s unified leadership, will allow us to maximize efficiency, effectiveness and impact throughout the Quad Cities region.”
“The Quad Cities has always been central to our nation’s manufacturing and defense strength, and this partnership between RIADA and QCMI takes that commitment to the next level,” Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks said. “Col. Creamer brings the experience and vision needed to expand the Arsenal’s mission, grow good-paying jobs and position our region for long-term economic success. I look forward to working together to strengthen the Quad Cities’ role in America’s industrial base.”
The RIADA is a community-led QC Chamber-affiliated nonprofit dedicated to the support and promotion of the Rock Island Arsenal and QC’s defense industry.
The QCMI (launched in 2024) is a nonprofit partnership of Western Illinois University, the University of Illinois System and Iowa State University that aims to create a hub for cutting-edge research, workforce development, technology transfer and industry collaboration. QCMI aligns directly with the Department of Defense and actively engages with both public entities and private companies.
“I firmly believe that the QC region’s manufacturing foundation has a bright future,” Creamer said. “We have a community that understands the value of hard work. The workforce here has the manufacturing skills to compete globally, and our industrial base ecosystem is a strength we need to market.”
A “Midwestern kid” at heart
A 52-year-old Wisconsin native (northwest of Milwaukee), Creamer and his South Korean wife, Geunhee, have two children – a nine-and-a-half-year-old girl and four-and-a-half-month-old boy.
“I live about three hours from where my parents and my brother live,” he said in a Wednesday morning interview. “I love the community -- great schools, great place to live. And so my wife and I decided when we were going to retire that we would settle down here.”
Creamer is impressed by the manufacturing might and iron-clad work ethic he’s found in the QC region.
“I think that's a strength for the community,” he said. “I'm a Midwestern kid at heart, like I said. And I'll put the Midwestern worker up against anybody in the world. I've been around the world over my time in the military. And we know how to show up. We know the value of hard work.”
Child of a father who served in the Army in Thailand in the early ‘60s, Creamer was an Eagle Scout and joined the military out of a sense of service, graduating from the famed Citadel military college (Charleston, S.C.) in 1995.
“I kind of wanted a challenge. And through a little bit of luck and hard work, I was able to get an Army four-year ROTC scholarship,” he said. “In the early ‘90s, the Citadel had the number-one ROTC program in the country. It was a great school and I think it really prepared me well for the military and beyond. The Citadel has probably one of the top alumni networks in the southeast United States.”
Creamer (who also holds a master’s degree from Webster University) has had an Army career driving strategy, operations and organizational transformation in some of the most complex and demanding environments around the world.
In addition to serving as chief operating officer at First Army (overseeing about 5,000 soldiers, Creamer has been Deputy Director for Strategy, Plans & Policy at U.S. Forces Korea; an Infantry Brigade Commander at U.S. Army Pacific; and served as a special advisor to the Army Chief of Staff at the Pentagon.
“Shawn’s experience and background will help us to remain steadfast advocates for protecting and growing all elements on the Arsenal,” Lohman (the RIADA board chair) said. “His experience with the U.S. Army in the Indo-Pacific will provide us with important insights on how the Arsenal can continue to be postured to support American defense requirements in the most important region of the world.”
Transforming the Army
Lohman further emphasized that the future of the Rock Island Arsenal is at a critical juncture with all the changes and reorganization associated with the current Army Transformation Initiative.
“The Army’s transformation effort is essentially trying to do a fresh look at what they've been doing,” Creamer said Wednesday. “I was in the military for 30 years, and institutions can kind of get stuck with institutional inertia. So this is a deliberate program to essentially challenge old assumptions and kind of ask, why? Why did we do this? Why do we do that?”
The Army will examine redundancies and look for ways of consolidating and streamlining operations, which may affect RIA, he noted.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has instructed the Army Secretary to: “implement a comprehensive transformation strategy, streamline its force structure, eliminate wasteful spending, reform the acquisition process, modernize inefficient defense contracts, and overcome parochial interests to rebuild our Army, restore the warrior ethos, and reestablish deterrence.”
One of the QC’s largest employers, the Arsenal is comprised of about 6,000 employees, soldiers, civilians, and contractors. It houses the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center (JMTC), the Department of Defense’s only vertically integrated manufacturing operation.
The island also includes the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, U.S. Army Sustainment Command, and serves as the headquarters for First Army. The Rock Island Arsenal supports upwards of 54,000 active and reserve personnel, retired military, civilian employees, and family members within a 150-mile radius. It impacts over 15,000 jobs and has a $1.2 billion impact on the local economy, according to the QC Chamber.
RIADA successfully advocated for two military construction projects on the Arsenal totaling $9.25 million in investment, in support of the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center (JMTC), in the 2026 fiscal year spending bill. They are:
- Forging Equipment Annex: $5 million in Minor Construction funds to house the expanding forging capability at JMTC.
- New Weapons Quality Assurance/Calibration Facility: $4.25 million in Minor Construction funds for a new building for JMTC.
“I would anticipate that there's going to be some changes across the Army. That’s just something that we're going to have to monitor at RIADA,” Creamer said. “And then to advocate for why the Arsenal is the destination of choice for the Army.”
There’s talk of consolidating ASC and JMC, he said, noting he will keep eyes on that.
“If the community thinks that some decisions are perhaps shortsighted, then that's where we may just communicate our concerns to our legislative teams in both Iowa and Illinois to ask those questions of military leadership,” Creamer said. “Our goal is, not necessarily to be overly concerned on that, but it's really to go after opportunities to bring investments here so that if there is any economizing that occurs that we have a net positive over time for the Arsenal.”
Part of the new job is working with Iowa State University’s new Quad Cities Smart Design and Manufacturing Lab on Tremont Avenue in Davenport. The lab conducts research and development including additive manufacturing, additive construction, robotics, spark plasma sintering and more.
Creamer succeeds Jeff Nelson who served as interim director for QCMI, and Mike Hutchison, former RIADA executive director.
“I think I am a little bit more of a coordinator and a connector between the organizations,” he said. “And then another key part of my role as well is to kind of inform, educate and assist local, state, national and even military leaders on how they can not just protect the manufacturing base here in the Quad Cities region, but also expand it in particular at the national level and with the military leaders. Just making sure that they understand the tremendous resource that they can tap into here in the Quad Cities region for manufacturing and in particular the work, the space that the QCMI is trying to really advance.”
“It's really just listening to what the Arsenal leaders are saying and learning more about what they need,” Creamer said. “I'm looking to find out what their problems are and to advocate for their needs with political leadership. And I'm also looking to identify opportunities for the research arm through QCMI to find out where they may have skill sets that they can support them, the government customer. But I think there's also some opportunities for local manufacturers in the Quad Cities as well to tap into the QCMI resources.”
Unique among American arsenals
Most U.S. military bases have groups similar to RIADA (which includes public and private-sector leaders), but Creamer said this QC partnership is larger and unique among arsenals nationwide.
“It is a unifying effort across the front, middle and back end of the manufacturing ecosystem because we're a little bit different than most military bases,” he said. “They are very active in making sure that the Arsenal has the right resources to accomplish its mission. When you really look at what the Arsenal does, more so than a lot of the other installations, the Arsenal is really a strategic resource.”
Army Sustainment Command alone “has a phenomenal, incredible role in just making sure that the whole supply, distribution system supports the needs of Army forces wherever they may be,” Creamer said. “Whether it's for training and just day-to-day operations here in the United States or power projecting to the far
The Arsenal is also changing the way we consider manufacturing today, he said.
“When you look at manufacturing, a lot of our mental model is kind of 1950s. You know, it's kind of dirty, it's dangerous,” Creamer said. “But really where manufacturing is going, it’s clean, it's white-collar, it's high-skill, it's technologically advanced. And that's where we're really trying to go.”
There are many benefits partnering with Iowa State, Western and University of Illinois, which he said has “one of the top five mechanical engineering programs in the entire nation and a world leading one.”
“Iowa State University is a global leader in artificial intelligence,” Creamer said, adding that he recently toured the Davenport lab and was very impressed.
“That helps with the whole manufacturing base. So there's a lot of skills that the universities bring,” he said. “We need to align everybody on this effort and to really make the manufacturing ecosystem that is the Quad Cities region more powerful and impactful in the years to come.”
“I think that if we do things the right way, we can really expand the manufacturing base here and really be not just a leader in the United States, but kind of the go-to place for international corporations, companies that want to invest in manufacturing here in the United States,” Creamer said.
Having a single executive director for these different industries (representing military and private companies) will help unify and strengthen the growth effort.
“In particular with the university side, it's also to be the single individual there to kind of find the opportunities within the universities and to make sure that they're unified, they're all achieving their desired goals,” Creamer said. “And to look not just at RIADA and QCMI, but I would offer one of the skills that I can bring to both organizations is just a little bit of a long-term strategic outlook.
“That's some of my skill set, how the Army utilized me for the last almost 15 years of my career,” he said. “I did a lot of strategy and strategic planning. And so that's where I'm going to take some longer-term views on solving problems and in just getting the organizations to be organized to take advantage of opportunities.”
This new position is another positive move to enhance the QC’s regional power and partnerships.
“Within the economic vibrancy of the Quad Cities region, there's a lot from air, ground and maritime transportation modes that this region offers to the manufacturing base, the business-friendly environment that the Quad Cities region is,” Creamer said.
“When you look back at what the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce did, that merger that occurred a number of years ago to unify the region,” he said. “You take a region-wide approach to particular economic development, that is going to position us well over the long term, for bringing in additional manufacturing here into the region.”
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