Juneau Chamber of Commerce CEO Cathie Roemmich has been selected to serve on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100.
The committee – made up of local and state chamber executives from around the country – advises the U.S. Chamber’s board of directors.
Roemmich believes she’ll be the first Alaskan to sit on the committee.
“As an Alaskan, I think our particular issues are our natural resources,” she says. “We have energy issues that we need to get settled, we have transportation infrastructure that we need to work on, we need to protect our fishing and our mining and our tourism, and make sure that our economic development is responsible.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest business lobbyist group in the nation.
Just like the State of Alaska doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with the federal government, Roemmich says local chambers don’t always agree with the U.S. Chamber. In 2011, the Homer Chamber of Commerce parted ways with the national Chamber over its stance on taxes, climate change and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill litigation.
Roemmich says that’s understandable, but she looks forward to bringing an Alaska perspective to the Committee of 100.
“The problem is, when you don’t have a seat at the table, they don’t know what the real issues are,” she says. “So that’s why I look at this as an incredible opportunity to actually be at that table.”
Roemmich says she was invited to join the panel after completing the U.S. Chamber’s Institute of Organization Management.
Her first Committee of 100 meeting will be later this month. The group meets twice a year.
