Jeff Mays

PERU - The Illinois Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development has scheduled the first of their new, year round Business Breakfast Series.

The first Business Breakfast Seminar of the Series will take place at 7:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept.13 at Mario’s Maples in Peru. The focus of the seminar will be “MyTax Illinois: Report and Pay”.

As part of the IDES modernization effort, starting on Sept. 11, Illinois employers will be able to use MyTax Illinois to complete all their unemployment insurance tax processes. IDES is putting more features and functionality online to better serve all employers’ needs.

Speaker Jeff Mays, Illinois Department of Employment Security Director, has extensive experience working in state and federal government and is an advocate of education and workforce development in Illinois.

Mays is a former five-term Illinois state legislator who represented West-Central Illinois (R-96th District; 1981-1990). He served as co-chair of the Legislative Audit Commission, as minority spokesman on the House Appropriations Committee and on the House Labor and Commerce, Executive, and Financial Institutions Committees, as well as the Select Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Mays also served as special assistant to the Chicago Regional Administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

As president of the Illinois Business Roundtable, an association of corporate business leaders, Mays made recommendations on Illinois’ policy issues. He also served as vice president of human resources and as executive vice president of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. Mays holds a Bachelor’s degree in history from Northwestern University. A resident of Quincy, prior to his appointment as director of IDES, he served as vice president of the Quincy Public School Board.

Mays was appointed as director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) by Governor Bruce Rauner on Jan. 12, 2015. Since joining, he immediately focused on enhancing the agency’s services for job seekers, claimants and employers, and on making IDES the pre-eminent employment agency in Illinois.

Registration for the seminar is $16 for members and $18 for non-members. A hot breakfast buffet will be provided at 7:15 a.m. Reservations must be made by calling (815) 223-0227 no later than noon on Tuesday, Sept. 12. This event is open to the public.