Six months after losing its CEO amid a widespread scandal, San Jose\u2019s chamber of commerce, Silicon Valley\u2019s largest chamber of commerce is close to naming its new leader.<\/p>\n
Several front runners have emerged in the hunt for the Silicon Valley Organization\u2019s new top boss, but the business group is keeping the process under wraps.<\/p>\n
After the\u00a0resignation\u00a0of CEO Matt Mahood in October, following public outrage over a\u00a0racist\u00a0campaign ad\u00a0posted on SVO\u2019s website by its political action committee, the organization went without a top leader for nearly two months. Interim CEO\u00a0Bob Linscheid\u00a0was appointed in December.\u00a0His last day on the job is reportedly in early May.<\/p>\n
The organization saw immediate fallout from the racist image.\u00a0It dissolved its PAC.\u00a0Businesses and nonprofits cut ties\u00a0with the organization and its membership dropped. The SVO also darkened the face of San Jose Councilmember\u00a0Sylvia Arenas in another racist ad\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 and blamed a consultant for it, but continued to\u00a0work with that consultant last year.<\/p>\n
This time around, SVO officials partially blamed\u00a0political consultant Storefront Political Media\u00a0and discontinued work with the agency. The group launched diversity trainings and\u00a0formed a diversity panel.<\/p>\n
Yet two of the three candidates under consideration are white. Some community leaders say it\u2019s tone deaf for an organization plagued by racist ideology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis proves that the SVO\u2019s hours and hours of meetings with our diverse communities was a complete waste of time because clearly they didn\u2019t care and definitely did not listen,\u201d said Walter Wilson, a longtime Black community leader and member of the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n
NAACP leader Jeff Moore said the community needs real, tangible change in leadership \u2014 not establishment candidates.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t offer much of a difference or a change, it\u2019s just the same Liccardo-ism,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI think the community wants and deserves a change, and that means something completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the candidates:<\/strong><\/p>\n Derrick Seaver<\/strong>\u00a0is the chief of staff for Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg. Seaver manages Ellenberg\u2019s staff and works on land use, environment and transportation policy, constituent services and community events.<\/p>\n Before joining Ellenberg\u2019s office, Seaver worked at the San Jose Downtown Association for a year as the director of policy and operations. Prior to that stint, he was the executive vice president for SVO for\u00a04.5 years. He was criticized by some business leaders for being too progressive and recently led Ellenberg\u2019s\u00a0push to adopt hazard pay\u00a0for grocery store workers, a proposal staunchly\u00a0opposed by the business lobby.<\/p>\n Pete Constant<\/strong>\u00a0is a former San Jose police officer who served from 1986 through 2000, and then served as a San Jose councilmember from 2007 to 2014. According to Constant\u2019s LinkedIn, he works in the greater Sacramento area as the CEO of the Retirement Security Initiative, a national advocacy group dedicated to public sector pension reform.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point I\u2019m not comfortable confirming or denying this rumor,\u201d Constant told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. Constant publicly fought with the city\u2019s police union after pushing to curb pension benefits.<\/p>\n Before Mahood got tapped, Constant in 2011\u00a0lobbied for the top job.<\/p>\n Madison Nguyen<\/strong>\u00a0serves as SVO\u2019s current executive vice president. Nguyen joined SVO in Jan. 2018, after a year as the executive director of the nonprofit Hunger at Home. Prior to that, Nguyen served as a San Jose councilmember and vice mayor from 2005 through 2014.<\/p>\n Nguyen did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n Jim Reed, Mayor Sam Liccardo\u2019s chief of staff who also once worked at the SVO, said others encouraged him to apply, but he didn\u2019t go for the job.<\/p>\n \u201cI have the best job in San Jose right now,\u201d Reed told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n Linscheid, who told this news organization in December he worked\u00a0around the clock to repair the SVO\u2019s reputation, declined to say how many people applied for the job, how many are being interviewed or even when a final decision is expected.<\/p>\n Source: Google News<\/p>\n #chamber of commerce #chambers #chamber news #business #San Jose\u2019s chamber<\/p>\n About Skyhigh.Vip<\/a><\/p>\n Skyhigh.Vip<\/a> is a global institutional investor with vast interest in Arts <\/a> \/ Construction<\/a> \/ Education<\/a> \/ Business Services<\/a> \/ E-Sports <\/a>and various other growth industries.<\/p>\n Several of its popular portfolio includes GO Chambers<\/a> which is the world’s largest business chamber listing providers with over 30,000 active chambers<\/a> as its members.<\/p>\n Flexgigzz<\/a> is the Asia leading marketplace for freelancer service and together with SOHO Learning Hub<\/a> which is an online platform for short courses and both of them aims to be the number one provider in Asia. For growth industries such as E-Sport Authority <\/a> which is dedicated to providing independent media coverage to all E-Sport <\/a>News related from around the world and for the art world, there is Atelier Auction<\/a> which is an investable art auctioneer and being in the art scene for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six months after losing its CEO amid a widespread scandal, San Jose\u2019s chamber of commerce, Silicon Valley\u2019s largest chamber of commerce is close to naming its new leader. Several front runners have emerged in the hunt for the Silicon Valley Organization\u2019s new top boss, but the business group is keeping the process under wraps. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,55,29,49,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chamber-news","10":"tag-chamber-of-commerce","11":"tag-chambers","12":"tag-san-joses-chamber"},"yoast_head":"\n