Greater Cleveland Partnership CEO and President Joe Roman has been elected chairman of the international Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.
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Greater Cleveland Partnership CEO and President Joe Roman CLEVELAND, Ohio - Greater Cleveland Partnership CEO and President Joe Roman has been elected chairman of the international Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives.
The group serves 7,000 leaders from 1,300 chambers of commerce, including 93 of the top 100 U.S. metro areas.
Roman, who will continue to lead the GCP, said he is honored to serve as chairman of the international group. It's also an opportunity for him to learn about municipal issues from other chamber executives.
Roman said he also plans to use the platform to tout the story of Cleveland's multi-billion dollar revitalization.
"Chambers of Commerce are just like businesses or any other organization in the sense that they must evolve to maximize their effectiveness," Roman said in a written statement. "I'm going to learn a lot from my chamber colleagues at ACCE and I look forward to the opportunity to share what we have done to help move Cleveland forward."
Thomas Baldrige, who served as ACCE chairman prior to Roman's election and is the CEO of the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Chamber of Commerce, said his successor will bring a good perspective to the organization.
"Cleveland is becoming an American success story for its turnaround, and part of that is the result of the public-private partnership there that Joe Roman has helped to forge," Baldrige said. "Working with government is a vital component for chambers, and Joe's expertise in that area alone is of high value."
Roman said the ACCE's recently published Horizon Initiative: Chambers 2025, which outlines a series of issues facing chambers of commerce in the near future, mirrors many of the areas that the GCP focuses upon. Some of the issues include, the need to reach out to women, minorities and millennials and looking at challenges with an international perspective.
