Before getting a chance to meet all the employees of Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI), long-time Louisville businessman and entrepreneur Kent Oyler, the new president and CEO of the Louisville chamber of commerce, was pressing the flesh with GLI and Commerce Lexington’s members in Charlotte, N.C., on the chambers’ second joint leadership trip.
Aboard a flight back to Louisville from Charlotte, Oyler joked with Business Lexington that he had just enough time on the job to get his new phone, figure out how his computer worked and find the bathroom before embarking on the joint expedition that saw nearly 300 community and business leaders from Kentucky’s two largest cities descend upon Charlotte for a two-and-a-half day fact-finding trip a the start of June.
Oyler took the reins from acting GLI president and CEO Eileen Pickett, who stepped in following the abrupt departure of the organization’s leader Craig Richard, who had been in the role for 12 months after moving from an executive position with the Greater Houston Partnership.
The transition
“The first 30 days are about assessment,” Oyler said.
“We have a 30-, 60-, 90-day plan to try to come up to speed to quickly deal with things that have been concerns,” Oyler said about his first missions at the organization that was rocked by budget shortfalls and a recent announcement by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer that he would halt funding for economic development to GLI and bring functions in-house.
“It’s a decision that’s been made on behalf of the mayor’s office — taking that funding and reapplying it to Louisville Forward — and so there [are] certain pieces of what we do that will transition to the city, but I think there always will be a very close coordination,” Oyler said.
“As the mayor told me, he wants and needs a strong GLI. He needs to have a place to be able to go to the business community … He sees a role for us in that piece. Plus, that’s only one piece of what we were doing and they were paying for part of it,” he said.
How Lexington fits in
While there are certain major aspects about getting GLI’s house in order now that he’s taken the helm, Oyler said relations with Lexington and Commerce Lexington are “key” to his role.
“There’s been such great progress, great relationships were built that last couple of days. So many issues that we hear, we need to keep it going,” he said immediately following the trip.
To continue the momentum, Oyler hopes to expand collaboration between the chambers from a staff function to the board level by establishing a committee that can meet regularly.
“We have a lot in common with Lexington. Lexington has the same type of issues, and a lot can come from collaboration,” he said.