Chamber hires new policy vice president

The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce has hired the chief marketing officer for the Florida Department of Commerce as its new vice president to help support the Chattanooga 2.0 education initiative and other public policy issues.

Dave Steele, the deputy executive director at Florida’s Citrus Department in Lakeland, Fla., will fill the post vacated at the Chattanooga Chamber by Rob Bradham, who resigned the Chattanooga Chamber post last year to become president of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.

Chattanooga Chamber President Bill Kilbride said Steele “brings experience and insight to this leadership position at a time when the future of our community will be shaped by the education and policy decisions we make today.” Chattanooga 2.0 has begun a 100day campaign to solicit and develop ideas and programs to upgrade Chattanooga’s education programs to better align with growing employment needs for skilled labor.

Steele spent most of his career at what he calls “the intersection between education and economic development.” He said this role is “the perfect fit.”

Steele’s career, which started with executive posts in chambers of commerce in the Midwest, includes public policy, economic and workforce development, higher education, public relations and marketing.

Steele has worked for the past two years promoting Florida’s citrus industry in central Florida and in a Facebook post said he was eager to move his family, including two small children, close to where most of his family lives in Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.

“The Chattanooga region’s capacity to balance pride in the past while also taking bold steps to shape the future is well-established and this is exactly what draws us here,” Steele said.

Steele begins his new role in March. He holds degrees from Ashland University and the University of Notre Dame.