About Chris Clark
Authored 51 articles.
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Georgia Chamber CEO & Autos Drive America CEO: 2024 Manufacturing Month One for the History Books
News, November 01, 2024
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: 2024 Legislative Session Recap
Features, April 25, 2024
It’s no secret that during an election season, polarizing debates and partisan politics can often overshadow the work being done on behalf of all Georgians. As we reflect on the last two years and the issues that have been most important for the business community, I’m proud of the bipartisanship, civility and integrity displayed by our state’s elected leaders to solve problems and deliver solutions that move our state forward.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: It’s Time for Washington to Reverse Course on Interest Rates
Features, December 13, 2023
It’s no surprise to anyone who has filled up their tank, been to the grocery store, or applied for a loan that sky-high inflation and increasing interest rates are placing an undue financial burden on citizens across the country and constraints on business investments.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: More Rail Access Necessary for Economic Health of Hancock County and Middle Georgia
Features, November 27, 2023
Twenty-five years ago I worked my first economic development project while running the chamber of commerce in Hawkinsville. I’ll never forget it. The decision maker flew in on a helicopter and stepped off in a fancy suit. We spent the next couple of hours driving him and the state team around our small town.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Get Georgia Moving
Features, November 10, 2023
Georgia has boasted record economic growth for five consecutive years with over $134 billion in capital investment, $68 billion in real GDP growth, over two thousand new or expanded project locations, and 268,000 jobs created throughout every corner of the state.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark -The Coming Crisis in Healthcare: Workforce
Features, August 18, 2023
Across Georgia and the country, we are experiencing a serious need for healthcare staff. Hospitals, senior care facilities, urgent care centers, local health clinics, and even imaging centers are facing long-term problems providing access to care for our citizens.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Dynamism in Georgia’s Economy
Features, July 06, 2023
Economic Dynamism is a term that refers to an economy’s adaptability, resiliency, competitiveness, and ability to respond to disruption. Georgia is no stranger to adaptability and resiliency, proven through our emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic with one of the nation’s leading economies.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Georgia’s Businesses Need Fair and Consistent Federal Tax Policy
Features, June 07, 2023
Having consistent tax and regulatory systems is common sense in a world dominated by economic uncertainty. Now, we need the Federal government to follow suit and mirror the same approach that our state leaders follow.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Post-Session Reflection
Features, May 01, 2023
After an unprecedented year of business development with over $21 billion of investment from 348 projects in 2022, Governor Kemp, Lt Governor Jones, Speaker Burns, and the Georgia General Assembly have proven they are dedicated to continuing that trend in 2023.
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Chris Clark: Georgia Is Making the Business Case
Features, November 04, 2022
While most of the country has suffered significant GDP losses and an economic downturn, Georgia has experienced a solid top 10 economic growth in the first half of 2022. Around the state Georgia corporate leaders and small businesses are worried about national inflation but remain optimistic and confident about Georgia’s own economic prospects.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: PRO Act Is A Threat To Georgia's Economy
News, May 04, 2022
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Georgia Chamber CEO: Georgia General Assembly Focused on Winning the Battle For Talent
Features, March 29, 2022
For over 8 years, Georgia has been named the best state to do business because of our low unemployment and record economic growth. Our robust economy owes much to the pro-business and pro-job creation partnership between Governor Kemp, Speaker Ralston, Lt. Governor Duncan, the Georgia General Assembly, state leadership, educators, and the business community.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Winning the War for Talent: Higher Education
Features, February 22, 2022
No other issue so dominates boardroom and shipping docks as the lack of skilled workers. In the next three years Georgia will need to fill 122,000 healthcare positions, 27,000 manufacturing jobs will be open and 13,000 construction workers will be needed.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Challenge Accepted: Solving Georgia's Labor Crisis
Features, October 11, 2021
Across our state, workforce shortages persist, impacting every industry and size of business. And though we have witnessed an unprecedented global pandemic, this war for talent existed long before 2020 as employers began to experience mismatched skill sets in their job candidates. Notwithstanding, COVID-19 accelerated this trend.
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Georgia Chamber President Chris Clark: Addressing Georgia's Rural Labor Crisis
Features, September 27, 2021
It's been one year since the Georgia Chamber resumed safe, in-person events. After COVID riddled our very existence with uncertainty, we were forced to temporarily dispense with those gatherings to preserve the health and well-being of all Georgians.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Understanding Georgia's Labor Shortage Crisis
Features, September 07, 2021
It's no secret. Our nation is facing a labor shortage crisis unlike anything we have ever seen. COVID-19 has shifted the way we approach our jobs and how we prioritize our lives. Just this week, Commissioner Mark Butler shared that despite a 300% increase in those who gained employment in July over June of this year, businesses are still struggling to find workers.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Economic Prosperity Requires Action on Crime
Features, August 23, 2021
A decade ago, businesses shifted their expansion, location, and relocation decisions from a model founded on incentives and infrastructure to one based on access to talent. Vibrant communities, otherwise known as live, work, play, and pray communities, have become the true economic drivers. No longer do workers move to better jobs. Today, better jobs move to workers.
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Georgia Chamber CEO: Addressing Georgia's Labor Crisis
News, June 21, 2021
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Chris Clark: Georgia’s Growing Labor Crisis
News, May 11, 2021
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Chris Clark & Santiago Marquez: Georgia Needs Dreamers for a Robust Economic Recovery
Features, May 07, 2021
It has been clear from the start of the pandemic that this is not simply a public health crisis. Businesses of all sizes were negatively impacted and, much like the rest of the country, Georgia’s economy took a hit. Fortunately, Georgia has already begun economic recovery efforts due to our state’s earlier re-opening leading to a 4.8% unemployment rate as opposed to the national rate of 6.2%.
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Chris Clark & Teresa White: The Reimagined New Georgia Economy
Features, January 22, 2021
As 2021 unfolds, the Georgia Chamber remains true to our purpose of supporting job creation, economic mobility, growth, equality and free enterprise statewide. Most importantly, we continue to listen to Georgia businesses as we focus on recovery and resiliency for a reimagined new Georgia economy.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: The Facts About Vaccine Distribution in Georgia
Features, December 18, 2020
2020 has certainly been a year for the books; one that has challenged our health, our thinking, and our collective willpower as a global society. And though there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel with the first vaccines arriving in Georgia, I wanted to briefly address the thousands of inquiries that we are receiving about vaccine distribution in our state.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Changing for a More Inclusive Future
Features, November 20, 2020
This year has been nothing short of unequaled in our lifetime. From a global pandemic wreaking havoc on our lives and livelihoods to the social and racial injustices that we watched unfold on our televisions and in our backyards around America, 2020 has truly offered much hindsight from which to learn.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: The Future of Georgia Transportation
Features, November 16, 2020
As the Georgia economy continues its recovery, we are seeing the return of the strength and importance of logistics and transportation. Moving manufactured goods, agriculture products and employees around town and around the world requires a visionary outlook.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: The Future of Energy
Features, October 30, 2020
I recently participated in the Energy Forward virtual forum produced by Gas South and Cobb EMC. The discussion was eye opening and the take-away clear. Energy plays a more critical role than ever in site selection decisions and job growth. In many ways, energy investments are actually creating and supporting a “New Georgia Economy.”
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Secure Your Vote, Georgia
Features, October 13, 2020
2020 will go down in history as one of humanity’s most challenging moments in time. We started the year with a strong economy, and in the blink of an eye we were crippled by a global pandemic. Needless to say, this year we have witnessed extreme highs and lows; yet, we are still here, still moving forward one step at a time, and still with one challenge before us as we usher in 2021.
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Chris Clark: The State of Rural Resiliency
Features, October 05, 2020
My rural upbringing has taught me a lot about working har d, finding ways to overcome even the most seemingly impossible challenges, and realizing that my faith can keep me grounded when the ground is shaky. I’ve seen small towns grow, decay and reinvent themselves time and time again; yet this time, with a global pandemic still in our midst, and a recession that many economists are saying will take 10-years to overcome, rural America is facing the greatest challenge of its time.
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Chris Clark: D.C. Fly-in Emphasizes Importance of Vote
Features, September 28, 2020
Last week has been nothing short of extraordinary. From economic recovery and foreign affairs to health care, transportation, rural initiatives, agriculture and so much more, last week’s all-virtual Georgia Chamber D.C. Fly-In reported record attendance and conveyed a strong message that business and government can and must work together for a better future and more rapid recovery from the COVID recession.
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Chris Clark: Building a Global Talent Pipeline
Features, September 14, 2020
Even before COVID-19 hit our borders and changed virtually every business plan and legislative priority for 2020, the war for talent was being fought across every industry sector around the world.
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Chris Clark: The 2020 Census. Just Do It.
Features, August 31, 2020
When Nike launched its “Just Do It” campaign in 1988, no one had any idea what would become of such a simple phrase.
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Chris Clark: How Small Businesses Recover and Become More Resilient
Features, August 11, 2020
Growing up in Fitzgerald, I witnessed the evolution of entrepreneurial spirit as small businesses would open, some close, and new small businesses would take their place. There is an economic cycle of 20-years that supply and demand generally drive.
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Chris Clark: New Talent for the New Georgia Economy
Features, August 04, 2020
Talent and workforce have long been key factors in the decision of businesses to locate or expand in a community. When I first started in economic development in the 1990s, I quickly learned that the mantra for site consultants was “location-location-location.” However, as the years went on, the factor of ‘location’ was surpassed by the community's availability of a skilled workforce.
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Chris Clark: The Call for Rural Resiliency
Features, July 27, 2020
My Fitzgerald roots ground me and millions of other small-town Americans to a strong work ethic, value of family, and a deep-rooted faith. We believe in community and helping each other through the tough times. And we celebrate in parades and on back porches when things are good. Of course, those occasions often come from long battles and commitment.
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Chris Clark: Reclaiming A Stronger, More Resilient Economy
Features, July 20, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic and the recession it has caused have been described as unprecedented. It has introduced new terms into our common language such as “social distancing” and “elbow bumping”. Simply put, it’s made us rethink how we shop, worship, educate and interact.
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Chris Clark: What You Can Do As COVID-19 Continues
Features, July 06, 2020
Political pundits and healthcare researchers can argue second wave or simply a continuation of the original COVID-19 pandemic. However, the fact remains that the virus which hit us so hard in the spring continues to be a potent force as we head into the summer months.
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Chris Clark: The Inequality of Opportunity
Features, June 22, 2020
We are in an important national conversation on systemic racism and the underlying inequality of economic opportunity in America. The Georgia Chamber and the business community will directly engage in dialogue and actively advocate for policies that create long term job growth, mobility, and equality for all Georgians. Doing so is essential for our collective prosperity.
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Chris Clark: Immediate Action for a Strong Economic Recovery
Features, June 12, 2020
In 2008, I was called to Governor Perdue’s office, given the responsibility of Commissioner for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and immediately challenged to build a budget that would cut spending by 40%. Like all agency heads during the early days of the Great Recession, we worked hard to steward the public dollars while protecting employees, citizens, and in our case, Georgia’s incredible environment. And not only did we survive, we also laid a foundation for the future.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Free Enterprise Responds
Features, April 30, 2020
Over the last few weeks, the power of free enterprise has been on full display as companies around the world have shifted, planned, reprogrammed and adjusted to protect employees and customers across a very different economic landscape.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Act Now
Features, April 15, 2020
As leaders begin discussions about reopening the economy, we know that it does not signal an end to the pandemic nor an abatement of the financial crisis for which we all face an inevitably long and rather costly recession. It is instead a call for the business community to engage and the government to prepare and consider additional action at the local, state and federal levels.
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: How Small Businesses Move Forward
Features, April 08, 2020
As Georgians track the daily statistics on COVID-19, praying for our families as well as those combating the pandemic, we are also gaining a clearer picture for another set of startling data. The economic impact of Coronavirus will, by many expert projections, lead to a prolonged recession.
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Georgia Chamber CEO: The Current Job of Business
Features, April 03, 2020
Our daily news feeds overwhelm us with statistics, predictions and partisanship at every turn. Anxiety and worry consume many of our friends and neighbors. We pour over our ledger sheets as we check in on customers and clients. However, in this temporarily chaotic time, we want to recognize the incredible sacrifice and leadership borne out of this crisis and recommend a few ways for how we all can rise to the challenge.
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Georgia Chamber CEO: Lawsuit Reform Essential to Georgia Business Growth
News, February 24, 2020
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: Rural Renaissance Op-Ed
Features, September 18, 2019
I’m a child of rural Georgia. I was born and raised in Ben Hill and Irwin Counties with ample time spent in Brooks and Colquitt Counties. I stayed in rural environments through college at Georgia Southern and grad school at Georgia College. My first chamber job was on the banks of the Ocmulgee River in Hawkinsville.
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Georgia Chamber's Chris Clark: The Value of Chambers of Commerce
Features, September 03, 2019
Since the first Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1599 in France, businesses have banded together for the common interest of economic growth and prosperity. In 1768, the New York Chamber established the first new world outpost to push back against ‘foreign’ governmental overreach. The Georgia Chamber was incorporated in 1915 by local chambers to promote small businesses, support rural communities and to protect our largest employers from job killing policy.
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Georgia Chamber President Chris Clark 8 for 18 Infrastructure Op-Ed
News, October 10, 2018
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Georgia Chamber President Chris Clark: Tactics for Keeping Georgia’s Economy Strong
News, October 01, 2018
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark: 8 for 18 Business and Legal Climate
News, September 11, 2018
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Georgia Chamber of Commerce President: There Are No Easy Choices in Fixing Failing Schools
News, October 28, 2016
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Chris Clark on Transportation Funding: Time to Finish the Drill
News, March 30, 2015
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Georgia Chamber CEO Chris Clark on Transportation Funding: We Can’t Afford to Wait
Features, February 27, 2015
There are few things more important to any community than transportation, and the same goes for any business. No matter what size or location our communities need safe, efficient connectivity for both residents and businesses. This is why improving Georgia’s transportation infrastructure has long been a focus of the Georgia Chamber and why it is our highest priority for the 2015 legislative session.
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Chris Clark: The 26th Georgia Quail Hunt was Again a Success
News, February 28, 2014