Black Chamber of Arizona seeking new leader in 2017

PHOENIX — For the Black Chamber of Arizona, a new year brings a search for a new leader, after the chamber’s board parted with former President and CEO Kerwin Brown after four years.

“As with all organizations, the Black Chamber of Arizona annually takes a look at the direction that the chamber is going,” said Board Chair Marchelle Franklin.

About two years ago, Brown made the decision to take the chamber statewide, a decision that Franklin called “premature.”

“Going statewide, given the vastness of our state, was very aggressive…but probably premature in our minds as a board,” she said.

Franklin said the board wants to focus most of its resources on the metro Phoenix area, where a majority of its membership is at, but also provide services to African-American small business owners in other parts of the state.

But for the first time in 15 years, the board is conducting an open and transparent search for a new leader, Franklin said. Franklin said the board wants to find someone the community feels they can trust.

“We need the community to believe in the leadership of the Black Chamber of Arizona,” she said.

Franklin said the chamber’s leader needs to be someone who wants to grow small African-American-owned businesses, understands the unique challenges of small businesses, recognizes how to create value for members and knows how to grow a membership organization’s base.

The board plans to make a decision in the first quarter of 2017, she said.

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