The Greater Chamber held its August Executive Board meeting at Valero’s headquarters on Thursday, August 23. Chair of the Board Katie Harvey, CEO of KGBTexas Communications, welcomed Board members and invited Phil Green, Chairman and CEO of Frost Bank, to provide the Invocation. Immediately following approval of the minutes, Katie led a healthy discussion about a potential city charter review and commission to discuss the City Manager’s pay and tenure and other possible items.
Next, Cacie Madrid, Vice President of Public Policy, informed board members that the Chamber has been tracking terms for both SAWS and CPS Energy Board of Trustees and presented the maps for both utilities showing who represented each quadrant and when their terms expire. The Greater Chamber is committed to having early conversations to establish a pool of candidates prior to the turnover in the upcoming year(s).
Dave Petersen, Interim President and CEO, introduced the Greater Chamber’s Executive Leadership Program, which is a new program that will target C-Suite executives who are new to the Alamo region and immerse them into major issues the city faces and expose them to major business leaders. It would run for six months and would start when 10 participants are identified. The Greater Chamber is looking to launch this program as early as January 2024.
Dave began his President’s Update by sharing that BizConnect, a business development and mentorship pilot program for woman, veteran, and minority-owned small businesses created with the US Chamber Foundation, has launched. The program runs from August to January 2024. Dave also discussed an economic impact study of non-profits that the Greater Chamber will be conducting with the San Antonio Area Foundation and Methodist Healthcare Ministries. The report collaborators begin meeting in September, and the report will launch in 2024. He also briefly touched on the Greater Chamber’s rebranding campaign, which will run until the end of September and has been receiving positive feedback thus far.
Dave went on to inform the Board that at the next Executive Board meeting, the slate of Executive Board leadership for 2024 and Board of Investor nominations from the Governance, Nominating, and Compensation Committee will be up for approval, and once approved they will go to the Board of Investors for approval next quarter. He also provided an update on the Greater Chamber’s recent search for additional meeting space and informed the Executive Board that the search has been narrowed down to three candidates. This space will give the organization the flexibility to hold a variety of meetings that our downtown space cannot accommodate.