Former congressman to lead Greater Reading Chamber Alliance
Jim Gerlach represented the 6th District for six terms
READING » The Greater Reading Chamber Alliance didn’t have to look too far to find its new leader. In fact, it chose an old friend.
The business organization’s board of directors announced Friday that former U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach has been named president and CEO. He succeeds Randy Peers, who left in July and returned to Brooklyn, N.Y., to lead that chamber.
“We are thrilled to have Jim accept this leadership role at such an important time in our community,” said board Chairman Dan Langdon, former CEO of East Penn Manufacturing Co., in a statement. “Jim’s history of public service, high integrity and ability to work with a wide variety of constituencies will serve him and our community well in the years ahead.”
Gerlach said he looks forward to help push Berks County’s economic growth.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of our community, and we rely on local industry for jobs that offer living wages and support our economy,” Gerlach said in a statement. “The Reading area is home to a thriving business community and diverse commercial and industrial enterprises. I’m looking forward to serving as an advocate for this community and supporting Greater Reading’s continued growth and prosperity.”
Gerlach, 65, served 12 years as the congressman for Pennsylvania’s 6th District. Before he was elected to Congress in 2002, he served in both the state Senate and House of Representatives for 12 years, representing districts in Chester County. A native of Ellwood City, Lawrence County, Gerlach moved to southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1980s to work for a West Chester-based law firm.
While in Congress, Gerlach was considered a member of the Republican Party’s business wing and earned a reputation as a moderate in an increasingly polarized body.
“When it gets uncivil,” Gerlach said in a 2014 interview with the Reading Eagle, “when it gets to the point that people are so angry I think they lose their reasonableness, then I think it’s not a good thing.”
The Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a forerunner of GRCA, lauded Gerlach just before he left the U.S. House in 2015.
“He has been a strong advocate for us,” then-chamber Vice President Gail Landis said before Gerlach’s farewell speech to the organization.
The Business-Industry Political Action Committee thought highly of Gerlach when he was in Congress, giving him perfect scores from its Outline for Prosperity. He was also lauded by the National Federation of Independent Business with its Guardian of Small Business Award and the Spirit of Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
After retiring from Congress, Gerlach became president and CEO of BIPAC. On its website, BIPAC describes itself as a “the premier political resource for the American business community” and its mission is to “improve the political climate in America for the business community and help employers and employees play a more active role in public policy and the political process.”
GRCA said it chose Gerlach with the help of Philadelphia-based Diversified Search, one of the nation’s top executive search firms.
After Peers left GRCA the organization was run by interim CEOs: Ed Swoyer, president of the Greater Berks Development Fund, and Pamela Shupp, executive vice president and chief operating officer of GRCA.