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Scheeler Made A Difference

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 15, 2008

From the Executive Committee of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce:

Today the community will lose one of its most dynamic figures. Kim Scheeler, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, will work his last day on behalf of our community. Kim will join the Greater Richmond (Virginia) Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO in late August. In the seven years since his arrival, Kim has developed the Tampa Chamber into a national leader.

In 2000, the year before Kim's arrival, the chamber lost just short of $1 million. In the six full years that he served as president and CEO, the chamber never lost money, and revenues increased 23.6 percent over that period.

In 2005, the chamber instituted a new and first of its kind membership model, which asked companies to pay dues based on the level of access they desired rather than the number of employees they had. This was a risky move but has paid off in increased memberships and higher retention rates.

In 2003, the chamber created Emerge Tampa with the mission to engage and retain young talented individuals working in our community. In 2007, the name changed to Emerge Tampa Bay to better reflect its new partnership with the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce. There are now more than 400 young, talented and highly motivated professionals involved in this group.

In conjunction with Hillsborough County Schools, Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance, Inc., and Junior Achievement of West Central Florida, the chamber instituted the Diploma-see initiative, which trained and directed community leaders in extolling the virtues of staying in school to thousands of school-aged children.

Kim also enhanced and improved the Leadership Tampa program by ensuring better programming and more stringent vetting of the participants. This program has helped to jump-start more than one career in the Tampa Bay business community.

Under Kim's leadership, the chamber's Annual Small Business of The Year Awards have, for the last four years, broken the previous year's record in terms of nominations and attendance at the ceremony. This annual event has become one of the most celebrated evenings in the Tampa business community.

In addition to these accomplishments, Kim's greatest achievement may be the dedicated and competent staff he has assembled. This will make the leadership transition that much smoother.

For the last seven years Kim has promoted and enhanced the business community in our region with a focused passion that will help him to succeed in Richmond.

The chamber board, employees and greater business community will miss Kim and his leadership, and we wish him the best.

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