New Russellville Chamber CEO says people are key
New Russellville Chamber CEO says people are key
Paul Harvel has learned a thing or two working for chambers of commerce for half a century, and he’s come full circle to Russellville.
Harvel was named in January as president and CEO of the Russellville Area Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development.
Impressive titles, but before anyone stereotypes Harvel as a suit-wearing stick-in-the-mud, consider this: His hobbies are water-skiing, snow-skiing and riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Harvel, the son of educators, was raised on a farm in Texas. His mother taught second grade for 42 years, and his father was an agriculture teacher. Harvel, who is in his 70s, followed in his father’s footsteps, and Harvel’s first job was teaching agriculture at Hope
My No. 1 goal is our established industry — the people that are already there.” Paul Harvel CEO AND PRESIDENT, RUSSELLVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
High School, where he stayed a year before getting into chamber work.
“Most people go a different route — you don’t have a major in chamber,” he said.
At that time — 50 years ago — chambers of commerce had agriculture departments, Harvel said. He got a job on the staff of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce in the agriculture department and, simultaneously, was the livestock director of the Arkansas State Fair.
In the early 1970s, Harvel was offered a job as CEO of the Russellville Area Chamber of Commerce.
“I thought about it for about two weeks,” he said, but he decided to stick with the Little Rock Chamber. “Now to make it full circle, that’s what I’m doing,” he said of taking the chamber position in Russellville.
He and his wife, Barbara, have had a home on Lake Ouachita in Mountain Harbor since 1983, but they are going to establish a residence in Russellville, he said.
Harvel moved into economic development after his staff stint in Little Rock and ran chambers of commerce in El Dorado; Enid, Oklahoma; Midland, Texas; and Amarillo, Texas.
His name is sometimes confused with Paul Harvey, the longtime radio broadcaster. When Harvel was in Amarillo, Texas, a small town nearby asked Harvel to be the speaker at its chamber banquet. The announcement published in the newspaper printed his name as Paul Harvey.
Harvel found this out when he went by the event location early and saw chairs set up for 500 to 600 people, and he was expecting a crowd of about 50. He went to fill his car with gas, and the gas-station owner told him, “I’m closing up early. Paul Harvey is going to speak tonight.”
Harvel said organizers realized the mistake, “but tickets sales were so good, they didn’t correct it,” he said with a laugh. He said he told the audience, “The bad news is, I’m not Paul Harvey. The good news is, I don’t charge anything.’”
Harvel came back to Little Rock in 1985 to be executive director of the chamber where he started, although the organization’s name had become the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. He accepted the job on the condition that he would be allowed to start Leadership Little Rock, which he did.
He was there for 22 years and oversaw construction of an award-winning chamber building and a successful sales-tax election, the proceeds of which went toward building Verizon Arena and expanding the Statehouse Convention Center.
“I decided I didn’t want to do Little Rock Chamber anymore, but I didn’t tell anybody that,” he said. Harvel started helping the Arkansas State Chamber, which needed a CEO. He was tapped to lead the organization, which he said was having some challenges.
“We needed to raise a lot of money, and we needed to get a lot more people involved,” he said.
“We were very successful for 2 1/2 years,” he said. “I drove all over the state, and I loved it. It was fun doing that.”
Harvel also started Leadership Arkansas, which has several hundred alumni today, he said. The point is to show people how to volunteer, to run for office and to make connections.
“Over time, that really pays off,” he said.
However, lobbying every day “was not me,” Harvel said.
From there, he took a job leading the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce in about 2009. It was having challenges — layoffs and plant closings in the community — and he thought he could help.
Harvel said he spent five years working to improve the situation in Fort Smith, and Perry Webb, president and CEO of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, asked Harvel to come help with a year- long capital campaign.
Again, that’s an assignment Harv el described as fun.
Webb, former CEO of the Walnut Ridge Chamber of Commerce, suggested to Harvel that he also help Russellville’s chamber chief, Jeff Pip kin, with an economic development plan.
“We called Jeff, and he said, ‘I can’t afford to pay anyone.’ I said, ‘Jeff, I’ll do it for nothing,’” Harvel said.
In 2015, Harvel wrote the economic-development plan for the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development, but nothing really happened with the plan, he said.
While attending a chamber event in Savannah, Georgia, in 2016, Harvel said, he heard that Pipkin had left the Russellville Chamber.
Har ve l’s interest was piqued because he’d spent three months getting to know the community and people while he wrote the economicdevelopment plan.
He called Gregg Long, chairman of the alliance board, who said the organizations were looking for an interim CEO.
“I said, ‘Gregg, my wife is going to kill me, but I’ll come do it for nothing,’” Harvel said.
During his interim tenure, which started in the fall of 2016, the board adopted the economic-development plan Harvel had written.
In January, Harvel was asked to step in permanently to run the alliance and the chamber — and he is paid.
He still occasionally consults other chambers for free, he said.
Long said the board is excited to have Harvel.
” He brings a wealth of experience, a wealth of connections with him, and he’s doing a great job,” Long said. “He hit the ground running. He brings a lot of enthusiasm to the River Valley area, something we badly need.”
Harvel said handling both positions isn’t hard.
“It’s really the same thing; it’s economic development; it’s jobs,” he said. “The chamber is all about economic development, governmental affairs as they relate to businesses, networking of businesses.”
When he was developing the economic-development plan for the Russellville Chamber, he talked to a variety of people in the community.
“It seemed like everyone was willing to make Russellville better — and they were, and they are,” he said. “You will always have some negative things happen, but by and large, I think they’re going to be successful.”
Harvel said the chamber’s slogan is one he borrowed from a friend’s company in Fort Smith: “Relationships first; success follows.” That means relationships with residents, businesses and legislators. On March 8, the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development will sponsor, with the Russellville and Clarksville chambers, a legislative reception in Little Rock.
He said the purpose is to get to know associations, such as the Arkansas State Hospitality Association, and other groups, better. “The more we know each other and understand what we’re trying to do, the more successful we are,” he said.
“My No. 1 goal is our established industry — the people that are already there,” he said. Harvel said he would rather see an established Russellville industry add 100 people than a new industry come to town that will employ 100.
He said the chamber and alliance want to be resources to help industries expand.
Not that he doesn’t welcome new businesses and industry.
He said the draw is, “The diversity in companies is great in Russellville. It has a highway, infrastructure, the river, rail — they have an excellent short-line railroad — and Arkansas Tech University.
“One of my favorite deals, when you’re trying to convince people to move to your town … is ‘Live like you’re on vacation.’ Look at everything you can touch [from Russellville].”
Harvel said other people feel the same way.
“They’re getting tired of living on their iPhones and driving home … on 12 lanes. I’m the guy that left Dallas-Fort Worth and came to Arkansas because I was tired of that. It was too crowded for me,” he said.
“If you are recruiting, you tell them, ‘You can live here like you’re on vacation’ and show them what you have,” he said. “That’s one thing I think we’re pushing hard.”
Harvel works hard and plays hard.
“I just love doing this,” he said. “I’ve gone to work every day for 50 years, and I’ve never felt like I’m at work.”