100 Days in office; Greater Fayetteville Chamber President and CEO Nat Robertson reflects on progress

By Faith Hatton, posted Jun 16, 2023 on BizFayetteville.com

Nat Robertson and the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce are celebrating a career milestone as the current President and CEO celebrates 100 days in his position as of Friday, June 16.

Robertson made a name for himself in the community long before leading the Chamber.

Robertson making opening remarks at the 2023 GFC Annual Awards ceremony.

According to his biography on the Chamber website: “Robertson has a history of pro-business accomplishments to include owning his own business, working closely with state and local economic development agencies, sitting on the White House roundtable on infrastructure, and creating the Mayor’s Small Business Award specifically with the Greater Fayetteville Chamber.”

Then Mayor of Fayetteville Nat Robertson awarding the Mayor Small Business Award to Pure Barre owner Amanda Harrell in 2017. Photo provided by: GFC.

Before being hired in early 2023 as CEO and President, Robertson served as the Mayor of Fayetteville and was active in Chamber activities since the 1990s and helped to develop programs for the Chamber in the past.

Robertson said he applied for the CEO position because he felt he could help build the Chamber back up following the COVID-19 pandemic which had a major effect on the businesses community. He also shared that now is a great time for the Chamber to expand its offerings and impact in the community.

“The opportunities are vast, and I think, where we've come from the past few years, it's a great time of growth for the Chamber,” shared Robertson. “We're still averaging over a member a day coming in and that's new members, that doesn't include the renewals that we're getting. I'm just super excited at the confidence of the community and people wanting to be involved and seeing the value of being a member of the Chamber.”

The current GFC staff and guests at the GFBJ's quarterly Power Breakfast

Chairman of the Board Gary Rogers shared that since beginning his role as Chairman in January of 2023 and working with the Chamber before and after Robertson joined the team, the progress under Robertson's leadership has been very noticeable.

“The membership has grown tremendously in the small amount of time, bringing back members that we haven't had in years, not to mention that our programming has had more structure. The foundation as a whole has been great. The Chamber has been through a lot since COVID with turnover, with a lot of challenges and he has faced those head on and has eliminated quite a bit of them. It has just been an absolute breath of fresh air and energy for the Chamber,” shared Rogers.

The Chamber sent out an email to members highlighting more of the progress being made on June 12. In the email, Robertson mentions adding new Annual Sponsors as well as new Event Sponsors wishing to take advantage of the exposure the Chamber can offer, a successful 2023 Awards Dinner giving recognition to local businesses and business leaders, and new and improved networking events.

“We do three different types of networking programs every month. The first one is total networking, the second one, the Chairman’s Coffee Club, is more of a program oriented networking event and then lastly is the Business After Hours which is all social,” said Robertson. “Some people would be more comfortable in different environments. Some folks may really get into the Networking Breakfast, because they want to walk around and shake hands and everybody knows why they’re there, and [then there’s] the Business After Hours, which is a social event so you hang out, talk to people and you have a cold beer and enjoy yourself.”

Another main goal of Robertson’s was to bring back an educational aspect to the Chamber events.

“We've not done a very good job in the past, that's why one of my goals is to make sure that we the kind of crank up the program piece of what we do with the Lunch and Learns and Business Breakfasts, just being able to offer low cost or no cost educational programs for our members. Could be anything from “Human Resource Law”, to “Personal and Business Finance”, to “Security in Your Business.” Those are the types of programs I wanted to do for education,” said Robertson.

It was announced in the email that after the 4th of July, more programs would become available such as “Security & Crisis Training”, “Personal & Business Retirement Options” and “Sustainable Business Practices, and that the Chamber would continue to add programs that are of interest to members and add value to their membership.

Pictured above are the GFC CEO & President, Nat Robertson - left, FSU Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Marcus S. Cox - center, and MAC Chairman and Owner of Moore Exposure, Steven Moore - right attending the 2020 Military Appreciation Luncheon at Fayetteville State University. Photo provided by: GFC

Finally, Robertson shared that the Chamber would continue to act as an advocate for the business community, taking issues brought forth by members and working to advocate for them with local government while also monitoring and promoting the idea of business friendly public policy.

Rogers shared with GFBJ that the advocacy portion of the Chamber’s contributions to businesses has also seen great improvement under Robertson.

“Just seeing the growth in the Military Affairs Council (MAC), seeing the growth in our Government Affairs Council and obviously taking a more vibrant role in conversations with our elected officials, being a good partner with our economic development, but truly being the advocacy our business needs. We've been there, but I have a feeling that our growth in that area and our legacy of that area will grow because of Nat’s, not only experience, but his motivation to make sure that our businesses have the full resources behind them within the Chamber.” said Rogers.

Nat Robertson, CEO/President of the **Greater Fayetteville Chamber** & It's **Military Affairs Council** presents a check from **Baldinos Giant Jersey Subs** on behalf of Jersey Subs' owner, **Peter Pappas**, to the Chamber's Board of Director's Chairman, **Gary Rogers**! Baldinos Giant Jersey Subs is a proud member of the Greater Fayetteville Chamber. Photo provided by: GFC

The next move for the Chamber will be to move into a new office space in the coming months located in Bronco MidTown, formerly known as Bronco Square.

The Chamber will be in suites 120 and 122 and will be located next to the Fayetteville- Cumberland Regional Entrepreneur and Business Hub.

According to Robertson, the lease has been signed and the goal is to be moved in and fully operational by Aug. 1. Robertson shared that the goal of the Chamber is to one day own its own building. You can read more about that here.

You can learn more about the Chamber here and chamber events here.

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