CEO Wayne Burns Charts
A New Course For The Central Palm Beach County Chamber Story by Chris Felker • Photos by Julie Unger
As CEO of the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce, Wayne Burns aims to provide a unified voice and essential services for the varied business interests here in the western communities and beyond. Now on the job for 18 months, Burns said one of the biggest challenges has been trying to bridge the ever-present gap in Palm Beach County between the interests of the more tourism-oriented coastal businesses, the local companies based in the suburbs, and those of the agricultural and service-related businesses of the county’s western reaches. “It poses great opportunity and challenge because South Florida is a bit unique in that, if you live east by the ocean, or west by the sugar cane and the horses, it’s almost like two different places,” Burns said. The chamber he heads is the product of a merger two years before he took over, between the Greater Lake Worth Chamber, which had a more coastal base, and the Palms West Chamber, dominated by west-central county businesses. But Burns believes that he has hit on a formula to unite chamber members behind a common vision. “When you merge such a difference in culture, you have to look for commonality, and so, that’s what we’ve been really working on,” he said. Along the way, Burns relies on his trustees and board members to help create that vision. “I think the trustees and the board members tell a story,” he explained. “It’s 62
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an expanded group, and I think a prominent group, of representative leaders from all types of businesses. If you look at their addresses and the cities they’re from, it’s across the entire county, not just within our central area.” Burns threw himself wholeheartedly into his position, taking what he called a “whirlwind” tour of more than 200 businesses that are members. Burns learned what chamber functions are most important to the owners and the viability of their businesses. And he’s moved forward boldly on several fronts, harnessing in tandem the power of the chamber’s Central Palm Beach County Foundation, which he also heads, to spearhead several key initiatives. But first, Burns had to deal with the chamber’s internal issues, concerning board governance and funding of its programs. “The first objective… was to address the governance issue, in terms of the fact that in successful chambers, boards of directors are typically those folks who are top leaders in your county, and they also demonstrate leadership by making a financial investment in your chamber,” he said. Burns explained that because most members of the chamber are small businesses, the funding has to come from alternative sources. That made board
development and board leadership key issues, he explained. He has since recruited a number of new members with hefty economic clout. “We have more members now than we had a year ago, including trustee and board members going up to PGA Blvd., extending down to Boynton Beach and out to Belle Glade. We’ve added members and trustees all the way out to the lake, including the CEO of the Bank of Belle Glade, the CEO of Tropical Shipping in Riviera Beach and the Florida executive director for AIG up on PGA Blvd.,” Burns said. And then, looking to outside relations, he focused on communication with the members. “The first objective was to get the message out to our members and prospective members that we were taking a new strategic direction,” he said, which he worked to achieve through almostdaily trips all over the county. The recent sale of the chamber’s office building at Southern Blvd. and F Road to the Town of Loxahatchee Groves fulfilled one of his operational goals. “We can finally move forward with our strategic plan, and we got out from under something that was a drag on our organization,” Burns said. The chamber’s new office is in Suite 19A of the original Wellington Mall, located at 12794 W. Forest Hill Blvd. Currently Burns is emphasizing two innovative initiatives: the chamber’s Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program, through which cham-