Vice President of Worldwide Economic Development of Amazon, Holly Sullivan, spoke on Amazon’s investments in Illinois, the company’s connection to small and mid-size businesses, and briefed the room with some of Amazon’s newest innovations during a Q&A segment moderated by Illinois Chamber’s Board Secretary, Daniel Wagner.
Illinois Chamber’s Associate Vice President of Business Services and Illinois ESGR's State Chair, Laurie Silvey, announced the ESGR Extraordinary Employer Support Award. This award recognizes sustained employer support of National Guard and Reserve service. This award is given to prior recipients of the National Secretary of Defense Freedom Award who continue to demonstrate sustained support for at least three years after receipt of the previous award. The two nominees who were recognized this year were Ryan Kenny with The Boeing Company and Josh Lowe with State Farm.
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“The IL Chamber has been very supportive of my volunteering, as well as providing support personnel and assistance with multiple ESGR events throughout my time with the Chamber,” says Silvey. With that, Laurie Silvey presented Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch with the Seven Seals award with ESGR’s thanks.
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce named Monica Mueller, Illinois Chamber’s Board member and Vice President, Government Affairs at Motorola Solutions to be the 2021 recipient of the Tony Reinhart Champion of Free Enterprise Award winner. This award is given to one individual who shows outstanding leadership in business advocacy balanced with a recognizing that employers success must include
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benefits for the citizens of Illinois. Monica serves as a director of government affairs at Motorola Solutions where her responsibilities include operations for the government affairs organization, managing state government affairs in Illinois for the company, directing the company’s Political Action Committee (PAC), and coordinating the country management organization. Prior to her existing role, Monica served as chief of staff for Motorola’s Public Affairs and Communications organization which encompassed government affairs, communications, sustainability initiatives and philanthropic giving. Monica also previously served as the manager of state government relations at Motorola where she handled state public policy issues in the 50 states. |
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Delta COVID-19 Feedback and Vaccine Mandates |
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Aug. 31, 2021 | Communications Director, Darbi Durham and Illinois Chamber’s Vice President of Investor Relations, Lanae Clarke partnered to author a series of questions that was offered to Illinois Chamber of Commerce members and partners from August 10, 2021, to August 31, 2021, that samples feedback from 335 businesses responding to survey questions pertinent to the evolution of the Delta COVID-19 crisis.
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Sept. 27, 2021 | President Joe Biden plans to visit Chicago this week to advocate his vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch says, “We don’t think the one-size-fits-all is the right approach, so we are opposed to what seems to be coming down the pike here.”
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Maisch Speaks to Major Media Outlets this Quarter |
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Sept. 13, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Bishop on the air this morning about President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate and what to expect in this week's special session.
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Sept. 24, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President & CEO Todd Maisch spoke with Newsradio 93.9 FM and 1240 AM WTAX on the end of additional federal unemployment benefits and its impact on the employee shortage across the United States. “Policy makers—both in Illinois and nationally—have not evolved enough in their thinking to really address these emerging issues in recognizing the fact that they’re likely to be with us for years,” Maisch said.
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Sept. 10, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Eric Horng with ABC7 on the response to President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandate affecting millions.
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July 19, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Dave Dahl with WTAX about a new ranking by Site Selection Magazine making Illinois #1 for sustainable development. “For the overall business community, you’ve got to take a look at what the cost of that is from one business to another. Is it really benefiting small businesses as they come out of the COVID recession?” said Maisch. “It’s one snippet. I wouldn’t read any too much into this one rating.”
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Aug. 8, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Tessa Bentulan with News Channel 20 on the future expansion of dining and local businesses in Springfield IL.
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Sept. 6, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Alyssa Hui with News Channel 20 on the ending of the additional federal unemployment benefits. “If you can go ahead and get a nice check from the government and not show up to work, there are some people who are going to take that deal,” Maisch said.
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Sept. 19, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch spoke to Tanja Babich with ABC 7 Chicago on the labor shortage impacting our economy.
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Illinois Chamber Behind the BIG Program |
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Aug. 11, 2021 | “This is a very positive thing that will help some companies keep their doors open,” Maisch said in a phone interview. “I credit DECO and the administration for trying to give assistance.”
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Aug. 11, 2021 | The Illinois Chamber of Commerce applauds Governor JB Pritzker for announcing his $250 million Back to Business (B2B) Grant Program that will continue to support small businesses across Illinois. The Chamber was a strong proponent of the “BIG Program,” the predecessor to the B2B Grant Program and still believe that state level relief for small business is a necessity.
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Concerns About Nuclear Facility Shut Downs & Energy Rate Hikes |
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Aug. 17, 2021 | Illinois Chamber's Executive Director, Energy Council Alec Messina spoke to Amanda Vinicky with WTTW on the potential closure of Illinois nuclear facilities. “We become very concerned when a profitable company seeks to lock in profits through the Illinois General Assembly, when those profits are going to be paid for by ratepayers,” said Alec Messina.
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Sept. 13, 2021 | “Be ready for cost increases and that means hiring decisions, investment decisions, anything that’s financial is going to be impacted, there’s no doubt about it,” Maisch said.
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Aug. 31, 2021
Illinois Chamber Responds to Omnibus Energy Proposal
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Sept. 9, 2021
GA Set to Double Down on Largest Electricity Rate Hike in Illinois History!
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Sept. 13, 2021
GA Set to Pass Largest Electricity Rate Hike,
Put Reliability at Risk
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Chamber Talks Illinois Tax and Biden's Proposed Tax Hikes |
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July 27, 2021 | “President Biden’s proposed tax hikes are not just on established businesses. They also threaten investment in Illinois start-ups and businesses growing through innovation,” says Chamber President and CEO Todd Maisch.
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Aug. 31, 2021 | Illinois Chamber's Executive Director of Tax Institute, Keith Staats was quoted in the Crains article by Greg Hinz on the response to Governor JB Pritzker signing SB 2531, SALT Cap Workaround.
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July 8, 2021 | Illinois Chamber’s Executive Director of Tax Institute, Keith Staats’ most recent column in the Illinois CPA Society’s magazine, "Tackling the Tiffs Over TIF Districts" is now available!
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July 15, 2021 | Illinois Chamber’s Executive Director of Tax Institute, Keith Staats and Chamber’s Investment Development Director, Joan Olivier attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Chamber member Skybox Data Centers. Skybox is a great member of the Data Center industry! |
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Sept, 30, 2021 | Illinois Chamber’s Executive Director of Tax Institute, Keith Staats published an article in the Illinois CPA Society magazine on the recent amendments to the Illinois Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.
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Chamber Tax Expert Speaks to the Illinois Business Community |
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July 2, 2021 | Illinois Chamber’s Executive Director of Tax Institute, Keith Staats met the Abt Electronics tax group in Glenview to give an Illinois tax update.
July 14, 2021 | Staats spoke with the Growmark tax and governmental affairs folks in Bloomington to give an Illinois tax update.
July 16, 2021 | The tax group at FGMK in Bannockburn, IL connected with Keith Staats to take part in an Illinois Tax update.
July 22, 2021 | Staats met with the Wintrust Tax Department in Rosemont to give an Illinois Tax update.
Aug. 18, 2021 | Staats participated in an Illinois Tax Update to the Chicago Chapter of Tax Executives' Institute Chief Tax Officer group.
Aug. 31, 2021 | Staats met with the RSM tax group in a virtual event to give an Illinois Tax update.
Sept. 16, 2021 | The Chicago state tax group at McDermott Will & Emery invited Keith Staats to discuss recent Illinois tax developments.
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Chamber a Part of Federal Infrastructure Press Conference |
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Aug. 23, 2021 | Illinois Chamber President & CEO Todd Maisch participated in a press conference on the bipartisan federal infrastructure package with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Maisch was joined by Laura Weis, President & CEO of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, Dan Mehan, President & CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Neil Bradley, Chief Policy Officer at the US Chamber.
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Government Affairs Takes Part in Roundtable & Task Force |
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Illinois Chamber Participates in Business Roundtable
Sept. 23, 2021 | Illinois Chamber Vice President of Government Affairs, Clark Kaericher participated in a business roundtable with Senator Syverson (R-Rockford) and Representative Keicher (R-Sycamore). Rob Karr from the Illinois Retails Merchants Association and Mark Grant from NFIB also took part in the event.
This event was an opportunity for businesses in northern Illinois to get an expert update on new laws and regulations that have gone into effect in Illinois or have recently been under consideration legislatively.
In his presentation, Kaericher highlighted the Chamber's effort to reform the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and the Chamber's $10,000 SALT-cap work around initiative that was signed into law late last month.
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First Future of Work Task Force Meeting
Sept. 28, 2021 | The first Future of Work Task Force meeting was held this week at Olive Harvey College. Illinois Chamber Vice President of Government Affairs, Clark Kaericher is a member of the taskforce. The Chamber thanks fellow task force member, and City Colleges of Chicago chancellor, Juan Salgado for being a good host.
The committee kicked off with three speakers. The first was keynote speaker Felicia Wong of the Roosevelt Institute. The second speaker was Shelly Steward of the Aspen Institute. She was followed by Brain Fabes of the University of Chicago.
The theme of all three speakers, and of the worker panel that followed, was the plight of the low-income worker in America.
The Task Force will meet once a month from now until April of 2022. The next meeting is scheduled for October 25th.
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Chamber Staff Gets Special Treat from Clean Impact
Aug. 16, 2021 | Thank you, Kirk Kellus with Clean Impact for always taking care of the Chamber!
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Chamber Members Making Headlines |
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June 29, 2021 | United placed its biggest order in history to The Boeing Company 737 Max planes which means more flights and thousands of new hires to operate them. "We are truly humbled by United Airlines' confidence in the people of Boeing and the airplanes we design and build every day,’’ Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. A great day for two great Illinois-based companies! Read Here
July 13, 2021 | Illinois Chamber Board member Monica Mueller with Motorola Solutions announced their plans to buy California’s cloud-based software program Openpath Security Inc., that will allow their customers to control and monitor access to buildings through various devices in a much safer way. Read Here
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July 14, 2021 | Illinois Chamber member Amazon has acquired the Central Steel & Wire plant on the Southwest side of Chicago, making it one of the largest sites in #amazon’s network. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2023. Read Here
July 20, 2021 | Congratulations Chamber member Jeff Bezos with Amazon on making history today by becoming the second person in over a week to fly his own spacecraft into space! Read Here
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July 29, 2021 | Congratulations to Chamber member Eli Lilly for their continued work on improving the lives of those suffering from COVID-19. Read Here
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July 30, 2021 | With college students returning back to school this fall, what better way to prepare than with this cleaning guide from Chamber member Libman Company! Read Here
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Aug. 4, 2021 | We are proud to support Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois in their mission to create a better #healthcare system in Illinois!
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Aug. 10, 2021 | Chamber member Amazon announced their new 100,000 square-foot fulfillment center in North Pekin which is scheduled to open in 2022. Thank you #amazon for your continued investment in Illinois! Read Here
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Aug. 19, 2021 | Illinois Chamber members ADM and Marathon Petroleum Corporation announced their partnership for the production of renewable diesel fuel! The facility will produce approximately 600 million pounds of refined soybean oil yearly. Read Here
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Aug. 22, 2021 | Congratulations to Chamber member John Tyson with Tyson Foods on being honored as one of the recipients for the 2021 Silver Medalist Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award. John received the award at the global Dare to Overcome virtual conference on August 23rd. Read Here
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Aug. 23, 2021 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s President Tim Killeen honored 28 key leaders on Monday for their work on the COVID-19 SHIELD test-and-trace system that has been launched to numerous colleges and universities! “I have never been more proud than I am today to recognize these colleagues and their leadership, said Killeen, awarding the first Presidential Medallions in his six years as president.” Read Here
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Sept. 1, 2021 | With a planned October opening, Chamber member Amazon announced their plans to begin the hiring process of 800 employees for their new 517,000-square-foot facility in Waukegan. Read Here
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Sept. 1, 2021 | Illinois Chamber member Dot Foods announced the expansion of their new cold warehouse that plans to be up and running by the end of next year! Read Here
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Sept. 15, 2021 | Thank you, Ameren Illinois for your continuous effort to help those in need! Read Here
Sept. 17, 2021 | Illinois Chamber member Boeing announced their new MQ-25 facility that is scheduled for completion in 2024. The 300,000 square-foot facility will create hundreds of manufacturing jobs in the greater St. Louis region! Read Here
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Sept. 23, 2021 | Since 2013, Instacart helped create 186,000 U.S. brick-and-mortar grocery jobs and helped increase U.S. grocers’ revenue by $6.4 billion, new research shows #InstacartEffect. Read Here
Sept. 27, 2021 | Congratulations to Chamber member Dot Foods for ranking #5 on the St. Louis Business Journal top 150 private companies! We appreciate all that you do!
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Chamber Driving the Discussion |
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In July, August and September we spoke to radio, television, and print media outlets, delivering
pro-business values to audiences across Illinois.
JULY 2021
AUGUST 2021
SEPTEMBER 2021
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ILLINOIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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