The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro celebrated 2023 successes, announced its 2024 goals, and honored three exceptional leaders at the 81st Annual Meeting

Chapel Hill, NC – On Friday, February 9, 2024, The Chamber for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro hosted its 81st Annual Meeting presented by Piedmont Health and Trinsic Residential Group. Over 300 business and community leaders, including many of the more than its 100 new members, convened at The Carolina Club to celebrate 2023 accomplishments, announce its 2024 priorities for a Greater Chapel-Hill Carrboro, and honor three exceptional leaders.

2023 Successes

2023 Board Chair Lori Doherty (Doherty Home Inspections & Wine to Water) shared key accomplishments in 2023, highlighting The Chamber's successful work in: 

1) Advancing Policy Priorities: Some of The Chamber's biggest policy wins of the decade occurred in 2023 including the approvals of a 300,000 square foot commercial Life Sciences Building on Franklin Street; new Rosemary Street apartments with retail; the rezoning of South Green in Carrboro to allow for residential development; Chapel Hill’s Complete Communities initiative; a major new UNC Health campus on 15-501, and the creation of a $5 million affordable housing loan fund. 

2) Enhancing member value: The Chamber hosted 102 member programs and events including women's events, young professionals gatherings, and Black Business Alliance socials; officiated 31 ribbon cuttings, graduated its 29th class of Leadership Chapel Hill-Carrboro Fellows; sent 25 travelers to Greece; and earned a 98% member satisfaction rate.

3) Launching The Campaign for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro: With guidance from over 70 business and community leaders, The Chamber developed a five-year community impact initiative, a set of strategies to achieve the goals and a set of bold, measurable outcomes to track, report, and be held accountable to.

The Campaign for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro

Co-chairs of The Campaign for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Creighton Blackwell of Coastal Credit Union and Scott Maitland of Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery updated attendees on the progress made towards the ambitious $1.4 million goal since its public launch in December. The crowd was surprised by an exciting show by Batala Durham to build suspense before Blackwell and Maitland revealed the current total of $1,367,050. 

To learn more about The Campaign for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro and its workforce development, business support, and affordable housing goals, click here.

Awards

Three extraordinary community leaders were honored with special accolades.

• 2023 Chair’s Award for Service to The Chamber: Sweta Adkin of Adkin CPA PLLC, The Chamber's Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee
• 2023 Chair’s Award for Public Private Partnership: Anna Richards, Orange County Commissioner
• Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award: Brian Toomey, Former CEO of Piedmont Health

(Scroll down to read citations) 

What The Chamber is FOR in 2024

The Chamber's 2024 Chair, Dan Lehman of UNC Health, announced what The Chamber is FOR in 2024.

1) The Chamber is FOR its members. The Chamber is for improving member engagement, and member success, for delivering exceptional small business services and brag-worthy programs and events, and for delivering on its member promise: to connect; to advocate; and to drive progress and build community.

2). The Chamber is FOR delivering on its campaign promises to strengthen workforce development, to improve local business growth and retention, and to increase local housing supply and affordability.

"In 2024, your Chamber of Commerce will focus on the dual priorities of meeting the current needs of our members and building a community where our members can succeed over the long run," said Lehman. "Your Chamber is for creating opportunities, for meeting our responsibilities, and for holding ourselves accountable."

Several members among the audience stood up to share what they are FOR: 

• President JB Buxton of Durham Tech stated he is FOR supporting local employers with the well-trained employees they need to succeed.
• Jesus Avendano of Gonzalez Painters & Contractors told the gathered he is FOR investing in the community through partnerships with nonprofits like Hope Renovations and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County.
• David Fitch of Fitch Lumber shared that he is FOR supporting locally- and family-owned small businesses and for identifying community needs and filling the gaps, especially through the Fitch Family Comprehensive Pediatric Rehabilitation Program.
• Bryce Bowden of CommunityWorx is FOR leadership development within Chapel Hill-Carrboro.
• Teresa Monteiro of Wishes Come True Gift Baskets shared she is FOR inclusive employment and business-to-business networking connections.

To conclude the meeting and wrap of the theme of "FOR a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro," attendees put those ideas into motion by writing what they were for on brightly colored paper that they then folded into airplanes and tossed through the air in unison. 

2024 Executive Committee

Lehman's remarks also included an introduction of The Chamber's 2024 Officers and Executive Committee:

• Chair: Dan Lehman, UNC Health
• Vice Chair: Betsy Harris, Armacell
• Immediate Past Chair: Lori Doherty, Doherty Home Inspections
• Treasurer: Sweta Adkin, Adkin CPA PLLC
• Vice Chair for Membership: Elie Abou-Rjeileh, Olmaz Jewelers
• Vice Chair for Government Affairs: Jim McNeely, CertaPro Painters of Chapel Hill
• Vice Chair for Accountability and Community Impact: Scott Maitland, Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery
• Vice Chair for Technology: Tola Oguntoyinbo, Shine Big Feedback
• Vice Chair for Communications & Marketing: Poonam Nandani, Hendrick Southpoint Auto Mall
• Chair of the Partnership for a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro: Creighton Blackwell, Coastal Credit Union
• General Counsel: Bob Saunders, Brooks Pierce Law Firm

To view The Chamber’s 2024 Board Leadership Team, click here.

About the Annual Meeting 
The 2024 Annual Meeting was held at The Carolina Club in Chapel Hill from 8:00-10:30 a.m. In honor of Black History Month, singers from Carrboro High School Choir performed an a cappella version of "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Written in 1900, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is also referred to as the "Black National Anthem" or the "Negro National Anthem." The event featured fifteen speakers, plus short welcomes from the newly-elected Mayors Barbara Foushee, Mark Bell, and Jessica Anderson of Carrboro, Hillsborough, and Chapel Hill respectively. The 2024 Annual Meeting was presented by Piedmont Health and Trinsic Residential Group with additional sponsors, including Beau Catering, BOLD Companies, Brooks Pierce Law Firm, Dominion Energy,  Duke Energy, Durham Tech, and Erickson Advisors.

About The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro
The Chamber is a membership organization that serves and advances the business interests of Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, including the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro as well as southern Orange, northern Chatham, and southwest Durham counties. The Chamber's network includes more than 600-member enterprises that employ 95,000 workers throughout the region. Together with its network, The Chamber is committed to building a sustainable community where business thrives.

Award Citations

Sweta Adkin, Recipient of the 2023 Chair’s Award for Service to the Chamber

*Remarks presented by 2023 Board Chair Lori Doherty

"This award is presented annually to an individual in recognition of their exceptional service to the Chamber, its mission, and its members. 

This year’s award is presented to the Board member that I counted on the most over the last year. I relied on them to be diligent, attentive to detail, to flag issues, to dig in when needed and to speak up when they disagreed. 

This leader helped steer us through a year of new challenges including navigating a post-pandemic year, transitioning from our long-time CFO, and investing in our new campaign.

This year’s winner is a former corporate CFO and a CPA with an MBA who now runs a thriving accounting practice supporting local businesses and community members.  

This year’s Award for Service to the Chamber’s Treasurer and Chair of our Finance Committee, Sweta Adkin."

Anna Richards, Recipient of the 2023 Chair’s Award for Public Private Partnership

*Remarks presented by 2023 Board Chair Lori Doherty

"This award is presented annually to an individual whose work and community service builds bridges between the public and private sectors to the benefit of the entire community. 

This year’s Chair’s Award for Public-Private Partnership recognizes a business leader, a civil rights leader, and an elected official.  But unlike a year where we might recognize more than one person, today we honor a single person who embodies all three.

A former aerospace executive with a 40-year career at McDonnell Douglass and Boeing, our award winner retired to Chapel Hill where her leadership and people skills were honored with election to the presidency of our local chapter of the NAACP.

Appointed to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners in 2021, and elected to the Board of Commissioners in 2022, please join me in welcoming to the stage this year’s Public Private Partnership Award winner - Orange County Commissioner Anna Richards.

Anna Richards, we choose to recognize you for your leadership and partnership, your honesty and trustworthiness, your accessibility and willingness to listen, and your commitment to improving how government runs and serves its citizens.

In addition to her many elected, committee, community, and family obligations, Anna represented the Commissioners on The Chamber’s Board of Directors in 2022 and 2023 and serves on the Black Business Alliance Leadership Council.

Commissioner Richards has decided not to seek reelection and will spend the remaining year of her term advancing the issues that are important to her and to our business community – early childhood education, public schools, a county strategic plan, affordable housing, economic development, and good government.

Thank you for your partnership and congratulations Commissioner Anna Richards, recipient of the 2023 Chair’s Award for Public Private Partnership."

Brian Toomey, Recipient of the 2023 Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award

*Remarks delivered by Indira Everett (Duke Energy)

"The Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award is a tribute to individuals who use their time, talent, and compassion to make a positive difference in the community.

Created to celebrate Duke’s centennial, this year marks 19 years of partnering with The Chamber to present this award to a deserving individual.

The honoree must exhibit the following business values: Integrity, stewardship, inclusion, initiative, teamwork, and accountability.

This year’s winner of the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award is:  

• An innovator who seeks creative solutions to problems and thinks beyond how things have always been done.
• A people-centered leader who empowers and brings out the best in their team.
• A regional healthcare professional committed to positive patient outcomes and an approach that treats the whole person.
• A problem-solver who navigated his healthcare organization through the stresses and pressures of the pandemic and the uncertainties of federal funding, fiscal cliffs, and regional expansion.
• An effective executive who led the growth of his organization to serve more than 45,000 patients and supported more than 110,000 medical visits, 25,000 dental visits, and fill more than 300,000 prescriptions each year.
• A visionary leader who developed new SeniorCare Sites and the region’s first Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, known locally as the PACE program.
• A collaborator who created the Small Business Health Program in partnership with our Chamber, North Carolina’s first-of-its-kind healthcare service for the employees of small businesses, offering transparent pricing for health and dental services with an on-site pharmacy.  

For more than 17 years, the Small Business Health Program has offered uninsured or under-insured employees of local Chamber-member businesses a medical home with access to high-quality, low-cost healthcare with a provider-visit price that has remained unchanged since the first day of the program - $60.

For his leadership, service, teamwork, coalition building, integrity, hard work, and success in improving the lives of the people of our region, I am pleased to present the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award to the former chair of the NC Community Health Center Association, former member of the national Federally Qualified Health Center Advisory Board, and former CEO of our Piedmont Health where he served our community and region for 18 years prior to his retirement in 2023 – Join me in congratulating Brian Toomey."

Contact: Aury St. Germain, Director of Communications and Business Development, The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro, astgermain@carolinachamber.org, 828-674-8982 (direct)