What a time I had on the evening of June 23 when I received the Marvin Hurley Award, the highest recognition given by the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives at their annual meeting in College Station. I didn’t seek and to my knowledge no one locally nominated me for the recognition. It was a special tribute from my peers that was a total surprise and one of the nicest things ever to happen to me. I begin my article with mention of the award because I believe it represents recognition for our...

We have scheduled our mid-year review of our programs of work for May 21 at the Broussard’s Center under the direction of our Long Range Planning Division chaired by Tim Sudela. As an organization, we proudly take a moment midway through the year to ask our divisions to report on progress and to illustrate what has been accomplished. The Chamber has many moving parts utilizing volunteers and staff to accomplish a variety of tasks, so it is prudent to take a moment and gauge how the moving parts...

I had the pleasure of attending, and speaking at, a ribbon cutting this morning for a local business. It is a business you have probably driven by hundreds of times and either didn't know it was there, or at the very least what the company did. As I stood there this morning, waiting for my turn to congratulate them on their great work and commitment to Beaumont, I realized........How many other businesses, that we don't even know about, are experiencing the same successes? And if you are...

Next Tuesday kicks off 2014 Business Development Week. This is the third year Southeast Texas Economic Development Foundation has presented the multi-day conference in partnership with the Governor's Small Business Forum. We have added a few new features this year including an executive series addressing high level economic issues. As we have done in previous years, the small business awards presentation will be included in the event, but this year we will present a new award for Southeast...