2021 Chamber Accomplishments: Outgoing Chair Remarks

It has been an honor to serve at the Round Rock Chamber’s Board Chair in 2021. As the board chair, I had the pleasure of working closely with the 2021 Executive Committee and our council and committee leaders throughout the year. These leaders helped move our mission forward through special projects and initiatives.

• Chair Elect: John Howard, Dell Technologies
• Secretary: Regina Munson, Anchor-Ventana Glass
• Treasurer: Jeremy Barclay, St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center
• Past-Chair: Scott Swindell, Almost Sundown Development
• Ambassadors: Diana Lindsey, Nutrition4Life
• Ascend: Deana Cavanaugh, Lott Brothers Construction Company
• Business Climate Council, Ann-Marie Price, Baylor Scott & White
• Entrepreneurship Council: Jessica Scanlon, Hot Dog Marketing
• Leadership Round Rock: Cynthia Flores, Annunciation Maternity Home
• Momentum: Ryan Therrell, The Beck Group
• Talent Development Council: Scott Staton, TD Industries
• Infrastructure Council: Mike Doss, Independent Financial
• General Counsel: Jim Howicz, Richards, Rodriguez & Skeith

Their support is the driving force for economic development and community enhancement efforts in Round Rock. All of them along with our investors stepped up to make a difference in our community and are helping steer Round Rock towards an even stronger and brighter future.

In addition to a strong group of committee leaders, I had the pleasure of working alongside a cohesive group of talented individuals on the Round Rock Chamber board, and I am honored to recognize our board members whose service is ending and will be rolling off.

• Brentley Brinegar, Brinegar Properties
• Joe Brown, Baylor Scott and White Health
• Chuck Glace, CHASCO Constructors
• Jim Geracci, Ascension Seton Williamson
• Tiffanie Harrison, Round Rock Independent School District
• Mike Heiligenstein, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority
• Amanda Keeter, Concordia University Texas
• Diana Lindsey, Nutrition4Life
• Jonas Miller, Office of Congressman John Carter
• Cary Rabb, WAG-A-BAG
• Amin Salahuddin, EIXSYS, Inc.
• Scott Swindell, Almost Sundown Development
• Ryan Therrell, The Beck Group

 All of these I just mentioned have contributed to a successful 2021, and I’d like to share a few highlights.

The Chamber supported the recruitment and expansion of both new and existing businesses across a diverse set of industries that represents hundreds of new and retained jobs and resulted in millions of dollars of new investment into the community.

In 2021, we welcomed Switch to Round Rock – a high-performing computing technology infrastructure company that is planning to construct a 1.5 million square foot Tier 5 data center on the campus of Dell’s global headquarters.

We also announced the expansions to local operations of engineering services firm, BGE Group and KingsIsle Entertainment, a video game and software development company, that will also be relocating its headquarters to Round Rock.

The team also successfully recruited the headquarters and manufacturing operations of Ametrine Inc. from Maryland, adding to the regions growing defense industry cluster.

Speaking of the defense industry, the Chamber launched the Defense Industry Advisory Task Force – an industry-focused economic development initiative that leverages the expertise and connections of regional business leaders to help identify new leads to recruit defense technology companies to Round Rock.

The Chamber also launched new entrepreneurship and talent development initiatives aimed at providing additional resources to businesses looking to scale or expand. In 2021, we:

• Hosted more than 30 entrepreneurship events
• Provided over 100 hours of entrepreneurship education and graduated 10 future founders from Entrepreneurship Round Rock.
• Formed a strategic partnership with Capital Factory and participated for the first time in ATX Startup Week
• Launched Virtual Coffee Connections in partnership with Round Rock ISD Career and Technical Education to bring together over 100 educators with 8 participating companies
• Graduated 14 from the Leadership Round Rock class of 2021, which raised over $10,000 for Central Texas Table of Grace, and 5 from Ascend bringing the total number of graduates to over 700 since the programs began

As previously mentioned, we entered 2021 with a great amount of uncertainty particularly as it relates to events and gatherings. I’m proud of the way the Chamber adapted to the challenges of a pandemic environment by creating solutions to host events virtually, socially-distanced, and eventually returning in-person, resulting in 95 events held with over 4,800 attendees in support of investor engagement.

We also welcomed more than 150 new investors and reached our highest retention level in 16 months of 80%.

And finally, the Chamber made significant efforts during the 87^th legislative session to advocate on behalf of the community to protect pro-business policies and economic development tools that allow us to compete for new businesses, while also supporting programs that provide critical funding for infrastructure and education.

As you can see, we have a lot to be proud of and it has been my honor to serve this wonderful community.

Avis Wukasch
Keller Williams
2021 Round Rock Chamber Board Chair