Meet Ian Holzhauer, the New Chairman of Board of Director for the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.
He is also a partner at Nagle, Obarski and Holzhauer
How Ian Became Involved with the Chamber
“I very clearly remember my first day at a Chamber event,” recalls Holzhauer. “I went to a Young Professionals (YPN) event and really didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d ever go back. When I walked in the door I was greeted very warmly by Jessica Hall, and she said, Welcome to YPN. We are part of the Chamber, here’s what we do, and here’s how you can get involved. It was such a warm welcome honestly. It so far exceed my expectations and she sat me down with people I could talk to and gave me that warm introduction, and I always felt from that point forward that I was welcome in the Chamber, that was the place for me, there was a leadership opportunity for me, and this has really become a family for me.”
How Can You Get Involved with the Chamber
“I got involved with the thing I was passionate about, and that was young professionals. I got invited to be on the Chamber board, got very passionate about the governance of the Chamber board, including the process to hire [Risvold]…before we made that decision, there was two years of deciding what criteria we’d be looking for, the direction of the Chamber would be, and I think we hired very well.”
The Future of the Chamber
“I mentioned hiring [Risvold], which only happened a few months ago. That was first and foremost the biggest goal. We knew that was setting the direction for the next few years and I feel we hit it out of the park. What we were looking for is somebody who could continue the relevance of the Chamber going forward. Nationally, there are some headwinds that there are chambers are up against. If you run a Google trends analysis search for the term “chamber of commerce,” there has been a steady decline nationally of the kind of interest in what this organization is doing. When people do studies there sometimes is a perception that we are this closed-off world and hard for a newcomer to come into, and that’s never been my experience. So I want to make sure we have that same warm welcome for newcomers that I had when I came to the chamber. That’s my vision.
To learn more about what’s happening at the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce watch, Inside The Chamber. To watch an episode check out NCTV17.com
