When it comes to business growth in the region, Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce President Bill Russell is usually the man behind the legendary big grin and big scissors at ribbon cuttings and grand openings, shaking hands, slapping backs and congratulating new owners on their leaps into the local biz world breach.
This month, however, it is Russell and the Chamber marking a little business growth of their own, as he expands his executive staff to help the organization increase its membership while doing some long-term financial strategizing he hopes will pay off for Chamber members, both old and new.
Russell announced recently that the Chamber has brought Brett Zabek on board as the organization’s new executive vice president and chief operating officer. Less than two weeks into his tenure, the Chamber’s newest suit sits in an everyman’s cubicle and says while he’s still feeling his way through the growing pains of being the new kid on the block and under foot, he’s keenly aware of what he can immediately bring to the Chamber’s table.
“I get to be one more voice and one more body at the (Chamber) events,” Zabek says. “Our exposure is just going to be double now, and I’ll be trying to get as involved as I can.”
That involvement will include using the skills he’s honed over more than 17 years in the business world, in places like Los Angeles and Chicago, before he and his wife settled in Cornelius almost 10 years ago to raise a family. Zabek holds a business degree from Concordia University and earned his MBA in management from Wake Forest in 2009.
Russell says Zabek brings “a new perspective and energy” to the Chamber staff, and that he expects Zabek to be a part of a team that will create strategies and implement programs beyond what is currently offered to the Chamber’s more than 900 member businesses.
To do that, he’ll be working full-tilt to introduce himself to the broader business community in an effort to increase membership, beginning with next month’s membership drive.
“I plan on knocking on a lot of doors,” Zabek says, “so who knows, maybe they’ll get sick of seeing me at some point. That’s possible. I have a tendency to be persistent when it comes to a lot of things.”
But that persistence is not for his or the Chamber’s gain, he says. It’s for what he hopes the Chamber can ultimately do for its member business owners.
“The business of the Chamber is not to enhance our bottom line for our benefit,” says Zabek of the nonprofit organization established nearly 25 years ago. “If we can enhance the bottom line, it’s a reinvestment we can make in programs or other things. ... It’s a matter of the more money we can free up, the more resources we have available, which means we can do more for our members.”
He says that “more” could include everything from offering additional training seminars and programs to holding more member mixers and other events as a way to increase business exposure.
While there are certainly still some empty storefronts and more than a few stalled development projects in the Lake Norman area, Zabek, who describes himself as an eternal optimist, says the region is still slightly better situated economically than much of its surroundings.
“Have we been hit as hard as other areas? Probably not,” he says. “There are definitely other areas of Charlotte that, if you drive around there, have been hit a lot worse than we have up here.”
Zabek also says it’s the intangibles of the business climate in and around Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville that may make the return to a healthier economy a smooth — and hopefully speedy — one. He describes the interaction between Chamber members as mostly warm and cordial, adding that they seem to genuinely have an interest in building and maintaining good
relationships among themselves.
“I think it’s a strong community,” Zabek says. “The business community up here at the lake is one that I think can weather the storm.”
