Greater Leander Chamber of Commerce incoming president

Bridget Brandt's experience with small businesses began at a young age. She opened her own dance studio in La Grange when she was 13, and, after studying at University of Texas while selling real estate, she worked as director of membership development at the Kerrville Chamber of Commerce until March 2001.

During the past dozen years, Brandt has worked in finance, marketing and technology, including a stint in the nonprofit sector. She also earned a master's of business administration from Texas State University. A resident of Cedar Park, in 2010 Brandt co-founded Support Behind the Badge, a nonprofit designed to unite the families of Cedar Park police officers and enhance the department's image in the community. Brandt is married to a Cedar Park police officer and has two young children in Leander ISD schools.

In April, she returns to her first passion, small business, as president and CEO of the Greater Leander Chamber of Commerce, where she plans to connect and grow the organization's membership base. Brandt replaces Mary Bradshaw, who left the position in December.

What aspects of your previous work experience can you apply to this new job?

I've had a lot of great experience that works closely and resonates with the community's goals. I worked at a chamber of commerce for three years, and when I left the chamber, I went into banking and finance. So I did marketing and was on the executive committee for a credit union for six years. Then I went into technology. I've worked at this nonprofit technology company for about six years, and so with that role I have been able to do a ton of nonprofit consulting, membership consulting and membership development programs all over Central Texas. As a result of that, I wanted to get into a true nonprofit and membership management, and, rather than telling people how to do it, I wanted to actually do the work myself.

What are your goals for this job?

My first and primary goal is to bring the membership together. I feel like the community is insanely strong and has a great closeness to it, so I definitely want to start leveraging that bond that all of the businesses have. The very first thing we are doing right now is going out to the membership with surveys. I am a firm believer in if you are in a membership program, you are there to serve the members. While I have a whole slew of ideas, the survey is still out, so I don't really want to share all of my ideas until I hear back from what the membership wants. But I will say that in talking with them, they want to grow their businesses, and they want to have the chamber be the heart of the community. It should be the place where businesses go to meet and network.

How do you plan to work with the city?

Very closely, actually. I've already met with [Economic Development Manager] Eric [Zeno] from the city and [City Manager] Kent Cagle. We are already in talks of bringing back some of the old traditions for economic development that [the city] had that involved the chamber. I foresee a very close partnership moving forward. Economic development is so critical for the community, and it's a catalyst for so many things that are happening, and everybody wants to be a part of it. I see the chamber wanting to facilitate that type of meeting so you can plan to see lots of other things along those lines for starters but also a lot of fun things, too. I think the best way to get people involved is to bring them together to do things that center around family and center around networking and facilitating those relationships.

Can you give us any specifics about bringing back old traditions?

One of the things that we've talked about early on is do we want to bring the bus tour back? From what I understand, they were really popular and brought a lot of people into town. I don't know if that's something we'll do or not, but that is the type of thing we are thinking about. So we are trying to decide if we want to do something like that or do something new and different. We have a ton of land, a ton of things that could be developed, but the question is, what's the best way to get people into our community to see them? We've only had some very preliminary, very initial five- or 10-minute conversations here and there about it. I imagine there will be more, but I have to say the city has been a very warm, open and welcoming place to be, which has been fantastic, and for sure I can see a strong partnership.

What do you want the chamber to accomplish in 2013 ?

I'm still kind of working through what that should look like, but I'll say, for me and for the chamber, I think my biggest goal is to create a partnership with all of the businesses. I feel like the chamber has done some great things to start, and they are just right on the brink of greatness. And I think my goal is to leverage all of those individual pieces that have been built to build something amazing. I'm not exactly sure what that looks like yet, but there are going to be changes coming, and I hope they are going to be exciting and wonderful for the membership.

Do you plan to grow the chamber's membership?

I will say we do want to increase membership but not at the cost of the current membership. I think that there needs to be programming that really helps our existing members move their businesses forward, while at the same time through a strong program we are able to attract new members. We can't really grow without new members. And the same thing as with the city. It has some very aggressive economic development plans, so with that growth, the chamber should grow right along with it.