NKyTribune staff
Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Trey Grayson has announced that he will step down in the next few weeks.
Brent Cooper, president and founder of Covington-based C-Forward Information Technologies will assume the role of interim president while a search for Grayson’s successor takes place.
Grayson was elected Kentucky Secretary of State in 2003, at the age of 31. He was reelected in 2007 and served until 2011, when he resigned to accept a position at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He later became the Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics.
He also ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 2010, losing by a wide margin to Rand Paul in the GOP Primary.
Grayson indicated on the Chamber website and in a long post on his personal Facebook page that he is leaving to pursue other opportunities. He stated that he has chosen to leave now in the hopes that his successor could be in place when the new Chamber year starts September 1.
Here is the text of Grayson’s message:
Friends:
#NKYBecause it’s been a great three years.
Yes, I’m using our new regional brand to let you know that I will soon be leaving the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
Three years ago, after a wonderful stint in Boston, Nancy, the girls and I were looking for a way to get back to spend more time with our family and friends, and fortunately, the Chamber allowed me to do just that.
Not only did it get me home, the Chamber allowed me to focus on my passion for improving my hometown. I’m proud that in the past three years, the Chamber reached unprecedented advocacy success, and through convening and collaborative efforts, we helped Northern Kentucky make meaningful progress in workforce and economic vibrancy. We also rolled out many innovative ways to help strengthen our member businesses.
Over the past few months, I have been talking with the Chamber leadership about my interest in looking at other options, and I have decided that now is the right time for me to make a move.
In the past few weeks, we have been able to secure some very talented people to join the Chamber to fill some key vacancies. At the Chamber, summer is always a time for transition as we close one fiscal year and plan for the next, as well as pass the gavel to new board leadership. Beginning a search now will ensure that a permanent successor is in place to begin the new Chamber year, which starts September 1st.
Because it isn’t fair to the Chamber or me to keep one foot in the door, by running the Chamber day-to-day until my successor is identified, and one foot out the door, by getting ready for my next opportunity, I am going to leave in a few weeks. This will allow me to focus full-time on the next chapter in my life.
What makes this possible is Brent Cooper’s continued dedication to the Chamber and to this region. As a result, he has once again agreed to step in for a few months to serve as interim Chamber President, and I will assist him and rest of the Chamber staff and leadership every step of the way to ensure a smooth transition.
As I stated above, I am proud of my time at the Chamber. A few highlights stand out.
At the very beginning of my time here, the Chamber staffed the task force created by now Kenton County Judge-Executive Kris Knochelmann to improve the governance of CVG, and then worked closely with him and our legislators to write and ultimately pass the legislation necessary to make those reforms a reality. That newly constituted board, working with CVG’s talented CEO Candace McGraw, has the airport flying to new heights and a growing economic impact.
This past legislative session was an historic one for our region and our membership. Many long-standing Chamber priorities became law, and I’m especially pleased by the passage of outcomes-based funding for post-secondary education. As I wrote in a column published in several statewide publications, it will be good for all of Kentucky, but especially NKU, to have such funding be allocated in a strategic and fair manner.
For the past few years, we worked to improve the Chamber’s relationship with our local legislators. Those who attended last week’s Legislative Appreciation Breakfast saw that it is at an all-time high. I am excited to see how our legislators, many more of whom now hold positions of leadership, will take charge in the effort to reform make our state more competitive.
I am also proud that the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce are doing more joint work than ever before. That’s important for the success of our region, and I’m glad that Jill Meyer and I could help bridge our regional divides.
Along those same lines, I’ve enjoyed being able to give Northern Kentucky a seat at the table at important Greater Cincinnati institutions such as ArtsWave, the United Way and the Health Collaborative in a way that we haven’t before.
We have made a real difference in tackling the workforce challenges in the region. A few years ago, we took the lead in forming the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development Coalition with several other partners to address the skills gap plaguing one of our leading economic sectors.
And just a few months ago, the Chamber took an important leadership role in convening schools, post-secondary institutions, business and industry to ensure that Northern Kentucky was positioned to maximize funding from the Kentucky Work Ready Skills Initiative. I am proud that Northern Kentucky had the most projects funded of any metropolitan region, and it wasn’t even close.
On the membership front, we rolled out several innovations to increase the value of Chamber membership. We became the first Chamber in the country to partner with Vistage to offer the senior executives at our members the opportunity to participate in Vistage’s roundtables at a discounted price. We also partnered with Gateway to create the Chamber Business Academy to offer classes on leadership, communications and Microsoft Office, as well as offering monthly sales workshops and regular international trade programming. We are working with Humana to help our members save on their health insurance through association health plans. We are also working on revamping our approach to membership and sponsorship. Hopefully, these innovations will position the Chamber for more financial strength in the years to come.
And of course, our Women’s Initiative continues to shine with new opportunities to connect, grow and achieve. While our Leadership program continues to leave its mark through class projects like the NKY Makerspace and is poised to offer new programming to meet the demand that exists in our region.
Looking forward, I am excited to see the continued roll out of the Chamber’s new brand that reflects the more modern organization that the Chamber has become.
It’s been great having my job be one in which I spent all day long working to make my hometown a better place to live, work and play. And it’s been great doing that with so many outstanding business and community leaders, including the chairs with whom I’ve worked: Debbie Simpson, Steve Harper, Dave Heidrich and Bob Heil.
What’s next? I don’t know for sure, but I do have a few ideas that I’m working on. Stay tuned.
Given all that we need to do to continue making Northern Kentucky a better community, I’d like to conclude, as I always concluded my NKY Business Journal column, “Let’s get to work!”
Good old Trey. He was the future once !
Could Grayson be planning to primary Massie? I certainly hope so.