A Message from the Chamber President

FROM THE PRESIDENT & CEO

The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1910 with purpose: to represent the unified interests of its member businesses in order to create an environment for business success and community success. Throughout our history, what we do and how we do it has changed, but the reason we exist has not. Purpose was at the core of the development of the Chamber’s 2021-23 strategic plan, #ImpactABY2023. It was at the core of identifying priorities; at the core of strategy development; and at the core of aligning resources and creating a supportive infrastructure to carry out the work. Purpose has been our lens. In this first year of implementation, the purpose-driven strategy has guided the priorities and investments of the organization, yielding accomplishments across the program of work. Through 2021, the community, nation and world has continued to battle a global pandemic that has impacted life and business. Nonetheless, through 2021, the Albany Area Chamber lived out its purpose, accomplished it goals and archived organizational improvements. Work remains – as it should. We know will continue to align, adapt and innovate in order to continue fulfilling our purpose. We will continue assessing and fine tuning; learning and growing. We will continue to change the how to achieve the why. As we enter our 112th year, we look ahead to continuing to carry out a new purpose-driven strategy designed to impact. In this issue, we share with you the accomplishments in our five divisional areas as well as our organizational improvements; our legislative priorities, which represent funding requests and policy positions that impact our members, our community and the economic competitiveness of Albany and the Albany Area; and we introduce our 2022 Board of Directors – an outstanding group of leaders committed to you, to the Chamber and to the community – and our staff. This year may throw us another curve ball, but with the support of our members, the leadership of our board, the execution of our staff and #ImpactABY2023 as our guide, we’ll meet it head on.

-BÁRBARA RIVERA HOLMES