(Photo courtesy of S.C. Chamber of Commerce)

With a passion for the state’s business community, veteran retired banker Mike Brenan, 72, has taken the helm of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, the statewide business advocacy group, promising transformational change.

Brenan was named the interim chamber head in late June in the wake of the abrupt departure of President and CEO Bob Morgan, who had led the chamber for three years. In the same press release announcing that Morgan had “resigned,” Brenan was named to lead the chamber while the chamber’s “board conducts a comprehensive search” for a new leader.

But two months later, in August, the chamber’s board removed the interim label and named Brenan the permanent president and CEO. 

“Soon after Mike took on this challenge on an interim basis, it became clear that he was the right person to lead the Chamber more permanently as we adapt to further amplify the voices of South Carolina’s business community,” said Will Whitley of Michelin North America and S.C. Chamber Board Chair.

A veteran executive with more than 46 years in the banking industry, Brenan retired in 2023 as the regional president for the South Carolina region of Truist Bank, after helping steer the merger in South Carolina of BB&T and SunTrust, which created Truist.

A fixture of South Carolina’s business community, Brenan has either served on or chaired the boards of many of the state’s business organizations, including the state. chamber. Other service has been to the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Palmetto Business Forum, Central South Carolina Economic Development Alliance, Midlands Business Leadership Group, TransformSC, SCbio, and the State Board of Education.

Also noted for his philanthropic and community endeavors, Brenan received the Humanitarian of the Year award from the United Way of the Midlands in 2012, and has served on that board, which he also chaired,  as well as the boards of the United Way Association of South Carolina, the Moore School Business Partnership Foundation, the SC Philharmonic, Palmetto Promise Institute, the South Carolina Collaborative for Race and Reconciliation, and many others.  

Immediately upon taking the chamber’s helm, Brenan announced several changes to the chamber’s executive leadership, including naming Cynthia Bennett, who has been with the chamber for 25 years and was serving as the chief diversity officer, executive vice president and chief operating officer. Will Frierson, who has served as vice president of governmental affairs since 2021, was named executive vice president and chief government affairs officer. In addition, Brenan hired Lowndes Macdonald, a veteran Midlands fund-raising executive, as executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

We sat down in mid-September with Brenan in his office at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, just catty-corner across Gervais Street from the State House, for a conversation about his plans for the statewide business advocacy organization. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.  

Q: The first question has got to be, why do this? Why come out of retirement and take a full-time job at age 72 leading the state chamber?  

A: When I retired in August of 2023 from Truist, I remember telling Julie, my wife, there may be something that comes up that would make some sense for me to have some involvement with. Something I could contribute to. Something to give back to the state.

I had a couple other opportunities, which I turned down; they just didn't make sense for me. But I got a call from David Lominack, the previous chamber board chair, at the end of June, and he said, “Mike, Bob Morgan is leaving. We'd like you to consider coming in as the interim president and CEO for three to six months,” while they did a search.

This made sense because I was on the board for years. I chaired the board back in 2013, and I had an affinity for the work. I had experience with the work. You know, I have good relationships across the street at the State House. I've got a good relationship with the governor. This just kind of made sense. 

But after about a month, I called the search committee back, and I said for three to six months at best I can be a babysitter, a caretaker, just a placeholder at best until you find the right person. But I believe that the chamber needs some transformative work. And I believe I've got the skill and the experience to do that. And so, if you would consider making me permanent, I will be glad to accept, and I will give you a minimum of at least two years. 

They hadn’t really started the search, and I brought the idea to them. And they said we were kind of thinking the same thing. So, everything just came together, and now I'm the permanent president and CEO of the state chamber. Another full-time job. And you know, I'm excited about it. I think we've got a lot of good things to do. 

Q: You are taking over in the wake of Bob Morgan’s abrupt departure. What are the State Chamber's biggest challenges? Are there any leftover credibility issues? 

A: The first thing I did was evaluate the team that was already here, and I made some changes. I named Cynthia Bennett, who has been here a long time, executive vice president and chief operating officer, which, quite frankly, Bob should have done long ago. And she also still has diversity responsibilities.

 And the other one was Will Frierson, who was our government affairs guy. Will's really good at what he does. So, I promoted him to executive vice president and chief government affairs officer. 

The slot that we didn't have was revenue. So, I hired a chief revenue officer. Lowndes Macdonald started last week. She is executive vice president and chief revenue officer. So that's my core leadership team. 

So that's the first thing I did because my philosophy has always been to get the right people in the right places and give them the tools.  

Q: Did you make those changes because things weren’t happening? Things weren’t moving forward?

A: The primary work that the State Chamber does obviously is advocacy. Representing the key issues for our businesses throughout South Carolina. And then we develop a legislative agenda around that. Will's in the process of putting that together for 2025.

I meet with my core leadership team every Monday. So, I posed a question to them. I said what are the things we should be doing that we're not doing? And what are the things that we're doing that maybe we shouldn't be doing? And they're still thinking about that. 

Because I think in an organization – whether it's a bank, whether it's a nonprofit like the chamber – you've got to question everything that you do constantly, because that is the only way you're ever going to get better. And so, I've kind of brought that spirit to this place. 

The chamber does a lot of great, great things. But what I don't think we've done well is collaborate. 

I've been on a listening tour. I've had somebody to listen to every day that I've been here. As an example, yesterday I had lunch with Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey and Ashely Teasdel, his No. 2.

I'm just listening to people like that me how the chamber can be helpful to what they’re doing. Tell me how we can collaborate with you. Tell me how we can support you. 

So, I've done that with a number of organizations. The most important one I did was  with Sara Hazzard, the president and CEO of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance. I spent an hour with Sara because I had a sense that the relationship between the State Chamber and the Manufacturer's Alliance wasn't what it should be.

Yesterday was the fall meeting of the Palmetto Business Forum. (A group of the state’s leading businesses “organized to formulate positions and voice opinions on state and national issues bearing on the survival and health of the American Economic System.”)  I was part of that forum for years and chaired that for a couple years. 

The State Chamber always presents as does the manufacturers alliance. So, it was kind of different for me to be on the other side of the table presenting to the Palmetto Business Forum. But that's another organization we need to have a better relationship with just because of the people who are part of it.

Q: That kind of goes to another question I have, and I think this relates to local chambers as much as the State Chamber, especially in an age where a lot of business networking and connecting is done digitally. Are chambers of commerce still relevant? 

A: Yes. I had lunch recently with Carl (Blackstone of the Columbia Chamber), with Carlos (Phillips of the Greenville Chamber) and with Bryan (Derreberry of the Metro Charleston Chamber) just doing my listening tour. Those three chambers, at least, are very vital in the communities that they serve. The Columbia Chamber is doing some wonderful, wonderful things, as is Greenville and Charleston. And so, I think they are very, very relevant.

Q: As you take over, how's the State Chamber doing? Assess the chamber's health? How many members, how many active members? Moving forward, what do you expect to do? 

A: Well, there's opportunity to grow membership. When he first talked to me, Thomas Rhodes, the incoming chairman, said everybody's job is sales and member development. The reason that I brought in Lowndes is to have her be responsible for that. 

The chamber currently has 770 members with about 65 percent actively engaged depending on events or issues. And we've got some great members; we've got all the large manufacturers, all the large businesses in South Carolina are part of the chamber.

You have to be in the position to fulfill a set of objectives. And the lion's share of those revolve around what goes on across the street (gesturing to the state capitol across Gervais Street). I’m meeting with the Speaker of the House tomorrow on my listening tour. If we do that well – fulfilling those objectives – that's what really fulfills the purpose of what we're designed to do: to be the voice for business in South Carolina. 

But we also do things like Washington Night, which brought together seven of the nine federal office holders from South Carolina last week, and the Workforce Development Symposium. 

We also provide things that are education related. And, you know workforce is one of those issues that is kind of top of the list. Every organization that I talk to, workforce is on their agenda. And now a key part of that is childcare. How do we address the whole childcare issue? That issue is starting to come to the forefront. So, we're going to have to give that some more thought. 

Q: Following up on that, are new tactics needed to address the shortage of workers we face in a variety of industries?

A: That's an interesting question. In fact, I had that conversation with Secretary of Commerce Lightsey yesterday. I asked him that question. He said, quite frankly Mike, I can't tell you who, but we have turned down a couple interesting opportunities of companies with anywhere from five to 10,000 employees. Because where are they going to find them? They're going to find them at BMW. They're going to find them at Boeing. They’re going to take them from existing businesses.

Another key part of workforce is education. I served on the S.C. Board of Education for 13 years and was chairman twice, and I helped birth Transform SC. (An initiative of SC Competes, the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness, “to transform the public education system so that every student is prepared for careers, college and citizenship.”).

I just had a long conversation with Susie Shannon of SC Competes and I'm going to meet with her entire team sometime in the next two weeks. Because this is another case of where anybody who even thinks about these issues or thinks about this economy, or thinks about workforce, or thinks about anything related to the prosperity of this state, we need to have a relationship with the state chamber. And we don't, we don't always. 

And so that's another thing I've been doing – starting to build those bridges. And I think by doing that, and if we are working together, that's where we begin to discover possible solutions to these issues. 

Q: You’ve committed to giving the chamber a minimum of two years in this position. What is your overall vision for the State Chamber in two years, three years? When you make the decision to step down, where do you hope the State Chamber will be? 

A: Again, the primary vision is obviously to be the chief advocate for business in South Carolina. So, we need to maintain that. We need to accentuate it. We need to grow it. We need to be proud of doing that. I want to make sure we've got the very best people we can have on our staff here. 

Q: You’ve promoted a couple of staff members and brought in one new executive as well. The chamber now has 13 employees and one intern. Are you looking at other staff changes? 

A: My seventh-grade history teacher, Mr. Nixon, first day of class wrote “AVERAGE” on the board, and asked, “Who wants to be average?” And I think all of us raised our hands. We thought average was pretty good. And then he said, “Average is the best of the lousiest and the lousiest of the best. Now, who wants to be average?” And believe it or not, that was a turning point for me as a seventh-grader. I said, OK, and I never looked back.

We just need to continue to improve the capability of the team. I think it is just a matter of giving them that opportunity to grow, because I don't think they've really been given that opportunity. But the attitude around here is pretty good. I mean everybody's responded well to me so far. 

Q: What's the biggest issue facing the chamber? 

A: I keep coming back to the advocacy issue. But apart from that, the revenue has been around $3 million every year for the last few years, so it's kind of stagnant. We ought to be growing revenue at least 10 percent a year. I mean, there's no reason why this chamber can't be a $5 million revenue organization. 

We are profitable, but we believe we can raise revenue to $5 million over the next three to five years to have an even greater impact for members. But we have no plans to raise dues.

So, we've given Lowndes that responsibility. I said, Lowndes, this is your long-term vision -- just get us to five, get us to $5 million. 

Q: What are your top issues and goals in advance of the legislative session? 

A: The issues that remained on the table last year are still viable. Obviously, tort reform continues to be a significant issue. I think they got closer last year. 

One of the things that Sara Hazzard and I talked about was working together on candidate recruitment. How can we work together to recruit more business-friendly candidates? 

We have the whole liquor liability issue and the problem of businesses not being able to get insurance. The inability to get insurance is an important issue and it’s an important issue for every trade association in this state, bar none.

Beyond the issues from the last session that still remain, we’re in the process of working to see what else is out there. We haven’t identified those yet, but we’ll have that soon.

Q: Artificial intelligence is going to radically transform the efficiency of communications in the workplace and elsewhere. And companies that figure out how to put it to use are going to be those who are going to survive in the future economies. What will be the chamber's role going forward? 

A: Wow. I don't know if we've given any thought to AI yet. Maybe we should. 

There are two sides to it. There's a side that there is going to be a great productivity tool. Then there's the other side of it, that artificial intelligence is only going to become more advanced, and what will that do to the workforce? We need to think about that.

I think it is a brave new world. We as a chamber have not taken advantage of it in any form or fashion. You know if somebody asked me to write something today, I'm not sure. I’d go to AI and say, write this for me. I'm afraid to do that.

Q. What else do you want to say about taking this position?

A. When I retired in August from Truist, I didn't look back. But you know, when this came along, this kind of got the juices going again because it was something I had some affinity for. This is fun.

I just want to make sure that we've got the right people in the right places. And that we are recognized as not only the leading business advocacy organization, but one of the many who advocate for business. And I want us to be viewed as the most collaborative body. Because if you think about all the organizations in our state that touch prosperity and economic growth, we need to work together with all those.