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Looking Back On A Remarkable Year
Looking Back on a Remarkable Year
C alling the past year “remarkable” by any measure, Chamber President and CEO Tom Edd Wilson told the 2009 Annual Meeting audience that a multitude of building and expansion projects under construction represent an investment of over $1.4 billion and the creation of more than 3,000 new jobs. “Because of the on-going support of our members and especially our Chattanooga CAN DO investors, we have a proven method for making the best of the bad times and the most of the good ones.”
Wilson called the Chamber’s volunteer leadership, investors and program volunteers “the driving force behind all of our successes,” before presenting the Council of the Year Award to the Southside Council and the Ambassador of the Year Award to Florence Pipkins.
Outgoing Chamber board chair Tom Griscom noted that the Alstom, Arch Plastics, Chattem, Dixie Industries, Gestamp and Orlandi projects are among the past year’s successes, highlighted by the Volkswagen facility. “The fact that we have continued to attract new investment during this dark economic season is testament to the value of continuing the Chamber’s comprehensive job creation effort,” said Griscom, publisher and executive editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “The economic downturn also didn’t keep the Chamber membership from growing to over 1,700 companies. That says something about the value we deliver as an organization.”
Griscom praised Wilson for launching the Chamber Volkswagen Team with support from CAN DO investors. “By raising funding to hire additional staff to focus on that mammoth (Volkswagen) project, he has guaranteed that the rest of the staff can continue to concentrate on members, existing industry, start-up companies, workforce development, public policy, marketing and communications, and all of the other programs which have paved the way for this year’s successes,” he said.
Incoming board chair Tom White, Unum senior vice president of investor relations, pointed out that in the short period since he became board chair in July, the Chamber had assisted Arcade Marketing in saving 210 jobs while creating 45 to 50 new jobs. “We also worked with SIAG Aerisyn to announce a $3 million expansion, which will create 120 new jobs,” White said. |
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