eye on business
Amid Milestones, a Passing of the Torch
Kris Johnson, AWB President
Last year, the unexpected passing of Tom Fritz, a longtime friend of AWB who was set to become our board chair, left a hole in our organization and the communities he enriched.
Thankfully, Mike Schwenk graciously agreed to step in and remained our board chair for another year, ensuring that AWB’ s leadership remained steady and strong.
Indeed, as Mike ended his term in September he left an organization that is stronger than ever. Mike’ s emphasis on finding solutions to some of the most difficult challenges we face in today’ s divided government and slow economic recovery has permeated throughout AWB. The synergy of staff around the goals and objectives outlined under his leadership has never been better.
The creation of Opportunity Washington, made up of AWB and our WashACE partners— Washington Roundtable, Washington Research Council and Enterprise Washington— was his way of telling every community that opportunity is out there, but we all have a stake in making sure policies at the state level allow for economic growth outside the Puget Sound corridor.
The legislative efforts under his watch saw the same results. The new Grassroots Alliance brought chambers from across the state and employers of all sizes to work together on a shared goal— the first transportation funding package in more than a decade.
You can see his influence in our new Strategic Plan and Mission and Vision statements. The theme of collaboration— being a convener of like minds and forging untraditional ties to groups with whom we may disagree on much, but have found points on which we can work side by side— is woven throughout his efforts as chair.
There is no better evidence we are on the right track than AWB receiving the first-ever Chamber of the Year award from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives this year.
This type of recognition doesn’ t happen by accident and it doesn’ t happen in a vacuum. Every AWB team member and board member played a key role in empowering us to do what we do best— serve our members and their employees.
All of this shows that we’ re doing some things exceptionally well, and getting the basics right. Looking ahead to 2017, we expect more of the same. We are excited to welcome Wendy Sancewich as the new AWB board chair. During her term as the board’ s vice chair, Wendy served alongside Mike and the AWB team as we transitioned to live and breathe our new Mission and Vision.
She knows where we’ ve been and she understands the challenges that lie ahead.
We’ ll be rebranding under her watchful eye and sprucing up our office entry and meeting spaces to better reflect our brand.
She will be at the helm guiding us through a 2017 legislative session, which we all believe will be unlike any other before it. A lot of pressure will be put on the employer community, but she is more than up to the challenge of leading us through anything that comes up, particularly with all of us standing alongside her.
So, today, we celebrate the many milestones of the past two years under Mike’ s leadership and his passing of the gavel to Wendy.
From all of us, thank you, Mike, and a warm welcome, Wendy.
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