James Hellwig Sparse Office Ok With Him ‘Cause He’s Too Busy Digging Up Business

James Hellwig doesn’t have time for the fancy stuff.

The U.S. Department of Commerce employee works in an office without art - with the exception of two Post-It notes stuck on a wall. He picks his way through papers scattered loosely across his desk and leans into a phone in front of windows without curtains or blinds.

Hellwig is focused, concentrating on one mission: to supply Eastern Washington businesses with information on how to export their products.

Spokane hasn’t seen the likes of Hellwig since 1982, when the city hosted a Department of Commerce officer. Money got tight, the city cut the program and the department’s Commercial Service office moved to the Tri-Cities. Last year, though, the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce offered to host Hellwig at the chamber on Riverside Avenue by providing him with an office and receptionist help.

“The synergy of him being here with the Spokane Regional International Trade Association in its role makes all the sense in the world,” said Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. “It became a goal to get that office back here.”

The offer to open a one-man bureau in Spokane suited the Department of Commerce, which pays Hellwig’s salary.

“They’re trying to decentralize this organization and get into rural areas that haven’t been serviced,” said Hellwig, who moved here from Reno, Nev., to fill the post. “They’re trying to open more one-person offices across the country and we’re trying to get communities to support the outreach.”

From his room at the chamber, Hellwig works mostly with small and medium-sized companies that export. He answers questions and puts them on track to finding customers and sending their products abroad.

He’s found about 350 such businesses in Eastern Washington. They range from food companies sending beans to Japan to holographic imaging equipment makers carving a market in China.

“My job is to help a company through the hoops of exporting,” he said. “And I help them determine if there is an export potential.”

His frankness is appreciated.

“He’s not your average federal employee,” said Matt McCoy of the Spokane Regional International Trade Alliance. “He has opinions and he goes out on a limb a little bit for you.”

Hellwig was born in Bremerton and grew up in Southern California. He studied sociology and statistics at San Francisco State University and went to Seattle twenty years ago for his first federal job - working for the Census Bureau.

“I’m a third-generation federal employee,” Hellwig said. “Working for our country is a high calling for our family.”

The job suited him; the stereotype didn’t. Throughout his career he has tried to break out of the drab “fed” image.

“When I started, I wanted to be a different sort of federal employee,” he said. “I wanted to be responsive, to be engaging and to be direct.”

Though the exporters with whom he works appreciate his candor, “the biggest detriment to my career has been the honesty of my big mouth,” he said. “Oftentimes I give my opinion even if my supervisors would like it different.”

Those he has helped don’t see this as a drawback.

“I find that he’s got a lot of information and he’s willing to share it,” said Laura Mathisen, president of KeyStroke Marketing Inc., which exports products such as Buckeye Beans and Herbs. “He’s very prompt, more so than I’ve ever found in others working for the government.”

It’s to her advantage that the commerce office is back in town. “I think Spokane is more of a hub for export than the Tri-Cities,” she said. “And when we get problems, because James has moved his office to Spokane, we have a more immediate response.”

Hellwig likes working with companies one-on-one and usually fields between 15 and 30 phone calls each day. He finds the variety of businesses in the region exciting. Eastern Washington offers a mix of agriculture and ag-related items, technology and commodities, “though we don’t have a real goodly number on any particular industry,” he said.

Because those goods are in high demand outside the United States, Hellwig is a key to international business for the region.

The best developing market for the state’s exports is South America, he said. “That’s where the focus of my efforts has been. They’re in our own political and economic orbit. I see them as our second best market (after Asia).”

While Hellwig’s days are richly filled with Eastern Washington’s great variety of businesses and their potential customers in exotic places like Brazil and Korea, his sparse office is still strictly business. He’d rather use his energy elsewhere.

To reach Hellwig at the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, call (509) 353-2625.

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