New Chamber of Commerce Launches in Gwinnett

It's official: The Southwest Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce (SWGC) is open for business.

The new chamber, which serves Norcross, Peachtree Corners and Berkeley Lake, held a kickoff luncheon Thursday (April 18) at the Hilton-Atlanta Northeast off Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. More than 160 business leaders, elected officials and community members were in attendance.

The event explained the five areas that the new chamber intends to improve on in the three communities:

• establish a southwest Gwinnett arts board to expand the arts scene
• improve schools by having businesses adopt classrooms, hosting an annual school supplies drive, and sponsoring an annual art show in schools
• support existing businesses through roundtables, lunch-and-learn series, surveys
• impact economic redevelopment by collaborating with economic development partners and working with the city and county to redevelop properties for a higher and better use
• marketing and communications

"This is a hardworking chamber of commerce. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves, get-your-hands-dirty chamber of commerce that's focused just here on southwest Gwinnett," said chair Steve Dorough.

He explained that the idea for the chamber started in July 2011 during a meeting at 45 South Cafe in Norcross. Dorough met with local leaders such as Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, Peachtree Corners Mayor Mike Mason and Director Chuck Warbington of the Gwinnett Village CID to establish a steering committee of 20 men and women who represented different parts of the three cities, and then they created a board of directors.

Aside from Dorough, other top board members include Hilton-Atlanta Northeast Sales Director Dave Gleim, who serves as the chair-elect; Gordon Tomlinson, who is the chamber's secretary and also the chair of the Progressional Development Committee in Norcross; and Ranae Heaven of Heaven & Associates as treasurer. 

The chamber has six vice chairs, who are Skip Nau of Nau Capital; Kim Dorough of the Norcross Cluster Schools Partnership; Luke Snider, Merrill Lynch-The Snider Team; Norcross City Councilman Charlie Riehm; Nancy Minor, the Nancy Minor Team; and Chuck Paul of A Closer Look.

At the luncheon, retired WXIA-TV news anchor Wes Sarginson served as the master of ceremonies, and the keynote speaker was Pedro Cherry, vice president for community and economic development at Georgia Power.

Notable attendees include Tom Rice, state representative for District 95; James Lowe and Lorri Christopher, city councilmembers for Peachtree Corners; Pedro Marin, state representative for District 96; Louis Radloff, District V board member for Gwinnett County Public Schools; Rudolph Smith, city manager for Norcross; and Norcross Councilman Riehm.

"Having a local Chamber of Commerce is good for this part of the county," said Gleim. "While the Gwinnett Chamber and Partnership Gwinnett do an outstanding job for the county as a whole, the Southwest Gwinnett Chamber can look after the specific needs in this community. I think this will be a good partnership for the two Chambers... looking after the county's needs and providing for the needs of individual communities."

The SWGC will meet next at 7:30 a.m. May 3 for its monthly First Friday Breakfast. For more details, click here.

Check out www.southwestgwinnettchamber.com for more information on the new chamber.

See also:

• Southwest Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Kickoff
• Gwinnett County Establishes New Chamber
• Southwest Gwinnett Chamber Ready to Launch

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