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A high-powered group of business leaders has rejuvenated the Triad’s  sputtering regional-growth nonprofit by first ripping it into pieces.

The 20-year-old Piedmont Triad Partnership, whose job it is to market the region for economic development, should be both stronger and nimbler after a recent restructuring that gives it more resources, more clout and a new governing board of heavy hitters in business and industry.

As makeovers go, this is no mere face-lift. More than a rearranging of furniture and a fresh coat of paint, it involves ripping up floorboards and knocking down some walls. Foremost, it signals a change of heart for Triad leaders.

Traditionally, the Partnership, headed for the last 10 years by CEO and President Don Kirkman, has had the right idea to promote the region as a whole rather than individual communities. But Triad cities continued to focus inwardly for economic development and have never fully bought into the Partnership’s gospel of collaboration across traditional boundaries.

As one clear signal that it’s a new day, the Partnership’s new chairman, Kelly King, CEO of the Winston-Salem-based bank, BB&T, rallied business leaders to raise more than $1.5 million for the Partnership in 2009 — most of it in only 90 days. “That is certainly something that I never could have done,” says Kirkman, who says he not only accepts the sweeping changes in the organization, but his likely future role there, as something other than CEO.

“They’ve made it very clear that they would like for me to stay,” Kirkman says. “But they’ve also made it clear that they would bring in a new president and CEO.

That’s fine by him, says Kirkman, who says he has tried hard “not to insinuate my ego into this discussion.” In fact Kirkman, who may become chief operating officer under a new CEO, helped engineer the reinvention.

Meanwhile, BB&T’s King has clearly been the driving force behind this new surge toward regionalism more through tangible actions than the frothy rhetoric of the recent past. His home base in Winston-Salem is not insignificant. Some critics have especially questioned that city’s commitment to regional initiatives.

The new and improved Partnership’s amped-up board members is also an encouraging sign. The Partnership’s executive officers include High Point University President Nido Qubein, who will lead a committee that will recruit the new CEO. A 45-member board of directors includes Joseph M. Bryan Foundation President Jim Melvin, Moses Cone Health System CEO Tim Rice and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center CEO John McConnell.

This isn’t to say that all 45 embrace the regional concept as passionately as King does. But somewhere along the way they’ll need to take a cue from Kirkman and see something bigger than themselves. That begins with having the vision to see beyond their own city limits.