Ten years ago, the business leaders in this community took a chance on a 32-year-old from Tampa by naming me the President and CEO of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce. Now that my time at the Chamber has come to a close, I am ever grateful to this wonderful community and the tremendous business leaders who have prepared me for the next chapter in my career and life.
I remember someone asking me in my first few days on the job how I would respond to someone who thought I might be a bit too young for my new position. I answered, “Well, I think Coach Donovan was around my age when he was hired to take over the Florida basketball program, and I think that’s worked out pretty well, don’t you?”
It was hard to argue the point, especially because the Gators had been to the national championship game the year before. And now that Billy has won two national championships, I am more than a little embarrassed that I would compare myself to someone who is now a legend in Gainesville.
At the time, however, the parallel seemed appropriate. Rather than worry so much about my age, what the questioner should have been asking was about vision, team building and execution of a plan. Without those components, any leader is destined to failure, no matter their age or experience level.
We had some early wins: our economic development arm, the Council for Economic Outreach, recruiting Wal-Mart’s distribution center to the City of Alachua, adding some 400 new jobs to the economy. The Sysco distribution center soon followed in the same vicinity, bringing another 150 jobs to a blossoming community.
I learned that the people of Alachua are a true joy, with a can-do attitude and authentic small-town hospitality. That same feeling exists in all the small cities throughout Alachua County, from Newberry to Hawthorne, High Springs to Micanopy and all points in between.
Along the way, our chamber was honored with a five-star accreditation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, placing it among the top 1 percent of chambers nationwide. Our public policy program took flight, and today public officials, who once might have ignored the Chamber, now come to it looking for our analysis and opinion on important issues facing the community.
We added a workforce component to our offerings by partnering with FloridaWorks, helping our local businesses find the talented employees needed to grown and succeed. This partnership earned us another honor from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – this time we were named the Workforce Regiona of the Year in 2009 by the Chamber’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce.
And another partner, the City of Gainesville, worked with the Chamber to help start and grow businesses at the Gainesville Technology Enterprise Center (GTEC), adding hundreds of high-tech jobs to the community.
Now the vision for this community has evolved into “Innovation Gainesville.” Forming at the Chamber, the iG team now includes members from government officials to the business community to local arts groups, investors and entrepreneurs – all with the goal of making Gainesville/Alachua County a national hub for innovation. With the recent announcement of MindTree’s plans for Gainesville, significant strides continue to be made in executing the iG plan.
I will now watch, with great interest, the continued success of this community from afar as I take on my new role in Mississippi. I believe a leader must be able to recognize when it’s time for someone else to lead – and that time is now for the Chamber. I depart knowing that the Chamber team remaining here won’t miss a beat; they are the most capable, hard working, committed group I have ever seen. Their new leader will be lucky to have them!
My family and I will miss Gainesville and the great friends we have made here. I give heartfelt thanks to all of you who touched our lives over the last 10 years and to those of you who took the time to wish us well. I will say “goodbye for now,” as I’m confident that many of our paths will cross again – after all, Mississippi is in SEC country!