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If you still have the same job you had 12 months ago, step forward. Now glance over your shoulder and contemplate the array of prominent Central Iowa business people who chose a new career path – or had one chosen for them – in 2009.

It was a tough year to lead a bank. Tom Stanberry is no longer the president at West Bancorporation Inc. Darrell Hughes departed the president’s job at Two Rivers Bank & Trust. Doug Bass vacated the president’s office at Stark Bank Group Ltd., holding company for First American Bank.

Over in the insurance sector, Aviva USA is putting the finishing touches on its headquarters building in West Des Moines, but Tom Godlasky is no longer the head of its North American operations. Jim Noyce left FBL Financial Group Inc. and now works in the Drake University athletics department.

Brad Long departed Grubb & Ellis/Mid-America Commercial. And, by the way, there is no more Grubb & Ellis/Mid-America Commercial; Mid-America Group shut it down, sending veteran brokers scrambling to find new places to ply their trade.

Doug Reichardt is stepping down after spending his career at Holmes Murphy & Associates Inc., and Dean Oestreich is retiring from Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc.

Steve Chapman left the top job at ITAGroup Inc., only to pick up a new gig at Ruan Transport Corp. Steve Morain took a shot at retirement after leaving FBL Financial Group, but this year he started back to work at the Davis Brown law firm.

It usually takes an election to shake things up in government, but trouble in Iowa’s movie sector was all it took to cost Mike Tramontina his job at the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Former Regency Homes leader Jamie Myers declared bankruptcy to the tune of $184 million, but continues to work as a consultant.

Some people left important jobs for new locations. Mary Lawyer walked away from the Downtown Community Alliance and moved to Dubuque. Bob Layton ended his time as the city manager of Urbandale in favor of a similar job in Wichita. Les Aasheim concluded his term as mayor of Clive with plans to travel and fish.

Terry Rich departed the Blank Park Zoo’s CEO post, but only made a short move – across town to run the Iowa Lottery.

David Stark left Iowa Health – Des Moines as the year began, got a taste of Chicago and moved right back again to become the president at Blank Children’s Hospital.

The face of Greater Des Moines changed, too, as it does every year. Although it was a slow year for the nation’s construction industry, some major projects reached completion here.

Mercy Medical Center and Iowa Health – Des Moines each opened a new hospital in West Des Moines, practically close enough to each other to share stethoscopes.

Downtown, the new headquarters for Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield continues to take its impressive shape across Grand Avenue from the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park, which opened this year to much praise and attention.

On the Des Moines River, work nears completion on two bridges – a straightforward traffic-bearing structure that will vault Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway over to the East Side, and a high-concept pedestrian structure near the Iowa Events Center.

The Rumely Building, a six-story warehouse across the street from the Science Center of Iowa, finally took a step toward a second life of retail and housing. Developers from Seattle and Chicago couldn’t make it happen, but now Sherman Associates Inc. of Minneapolis has workers busily making changes.

Now look to your left and to your right, and try to predict whose life will change dramatically in 2010. We can’t.