Photo courtesy The Woodlands ChamberBusiness
Meet the new President and CEO of The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce
The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce announced Aaron Cox, IOM will serve as the Chamber’s President and CEO, starting September 16, 2024.
“We are thrilled to welcome Aaron Cox as CEO of The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce,” shared Ann Wolford, 2024-2025 Chairman of the Chamber Board of Directors. “Aaron brings a true commitment to member engagement, and we are excited about the fresh perspectives and strategic direction he brings as we plan this next chapter in the Chamber’s history. We look forward to a bright future of growth and expanding opportunities for our Chamber and its members.”
Hello Woodlands had the opportunity to interview Aaron Cox about his new role, to learn about his experience of more than 20 years as a chamber and nonprofit professional, and discover why he is looking forward to serving The Woodlands community. Read the interview below.
The Interview
Aaron Cox’s Background
After growing up in southern California in the Los Angeles area and completing high school, Aaron moved to the state of Kentucky. Aaron had a wonderful experience in Kentucky, engaging with both the people and the place that taught him to appreciate the value of community, friendships, and caring for your neighbor. He started his early career in workforce development connecting with the underserved population and running a job training center that allowed people to change their lives, as well as their own family’s lives. After being involved in several services within the organization such as transportation and childcare, Aaron became the Chief Legislative Agent and continued advocating for transportation funding in Washington D.C. At one point through his work, Aaron was a member of eleven different Chambers and on the Board of Directors for four.
“My very first start and introduction to the Chamber industry was as an Ambassador for the Lexington Chamber of Commerce in Kentucky,” shared Aaron Cox. After volunteering as an Ambassador, Aaron served on the Board, went through the Leadership program, and later joined the Leadership Alumni committee. From his volunteer journey and time serving the Chamber, he realized how much work was going on and how we do not always realize the full breath of what a Chamber of Commerce does.
After serving the Chamber as a volunteer, Aaron Cox became the first Executive Director of the Kentucky State Chamber Association, building the association’s membership to nearly 100 percent of all state chambers. In the process of building a grassroots network, Aaron had the opportunity to work closely with the advocacy team on policy development, local engagement and impact.
Next, Aaron worked for a software company to get into business, but discovered he had a longing to return to the Chamber industry. An opportunity presented itself and Aaron moved to Texas 12 years ago to work for the Texas Association of Business (TAB), the Texas state chamber of commerce. He had a two-fold job: running the State Association (Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives) and serving as Senior Vice President of Chamber Relations. Aaron worked with local communities, chambers and members to advance policy, ensured TAB was delivering on membership promises, and built relationships so TAB understood fully what mattered to its members and their communities.
After working over 10 years for the Texas Association of Business, Aaron then chose to step in the nonprofit space and work for the American Cancer Society.
Why The Woodlands?
Aaron Cox shared, “Very early on in my work with the first couple of nonprofits I was with it became very obvious to me that the success of a community henges on the success of it’s business community. All things flow from business. They are among the most critical institutions representing all types of areas in our different communities. If they are doing well, then the community can do very well – it can flourish and prosper with philanthropy, or the arts, or education – all of those areas do better when business does better. That desire to serve business, to create an environment where business people can do what they do.”
“The Chamber is the one place in every community where we can gather, we can convene people, bringing a multitude of backgrounds, interests, ideas, and goals and discuss them in a form that is neutral, positive, and looking for the best for our community and come out with solutions. There are a lot of organizations that can meet, there are a lot of people who meet, but they don’t convene Chamber members who are the most intellectual business minded, hard driving, decision making people that they are and say, ‘we are going to come together and leave with something.’ That’s what I love about the Chamber – is that we get results, we move the community forward.”
“Having that as a foundation, The Woodlands was overwhelmingly exciting for me to have an opportunity to come here. All the elements are there. There is a heritage of leadership that is I believe is unmatched, it’s matched by very few communities, particularly a young community like this. It is unmatched in our state, and I would argue across our nation. We have a solid foundation of businesses – great local business leaders and great local businesses of all shape and form…Then you take all of that and you wrap it up with an amazing community.”
Aaron continued by reflecting on past visits to The Woodlands on business while working for Texas Association of Business and attending Chamber industry events. “When you come off [I-45] and you start seeing the trees and the neighborhoods, there’s almost something magical about it. It’s really just a different place, you feel like you’ve gone somewhere that’s special. When you take a community that has the aesthetic like that, the people that are here, and the foundation of leadership and business and history, it’s an exciting place to be. All the elements are there to continue, to grow, and really take the greatness of this community to a different place. That’s what got me here, that’s why I’m here, and what really excited me about being here.”
Looking Forward
Aaron Cox looks forward to bringing four guiding principles to The Woodlands Area Chamber: energy, synergy, creativity, and excellence.
Energy: “We will be a high energy group. Making sure we are there, when people come to a Chamber event or meeting, and they are engaging with the chamber, it’s going to be energetic, it’s going to be lively, it’s sometimes will be fun. But no matter what they will come with expectation to see what’s happening, they will come with expectation to know we are going to walk away with a solid discussion and solution for the things that we convene to talk about with this community and to move forward.”
Synergy: “We want to make sure we get everyone rolling in the same direction. That is not always easy, but common goals allow us to come together and move within our own spheres of influence to make it happen. When you come together with a common goal of building our future, building the legacy, making sure our children and our children’s children have a place they come home…There’s family, friends, memory. [The Chamber] can make sure there is an environment where there is opportunity…Together we can work together to create solutions and move forward.”
Creativity: “As a Chamber organization, we have the fortune of sitting amongst companies that are the greatest innovators of our world today. We want to model that; we want to reflect that back to them. We want to be creative in the way we serve and engage our members, and how our members engage with one another. We [want to] make many experiences unique that we infuse to the greatest level that we can, innovation and technology in our operations, that we streamline things, and we are innovative and able to maximize the energy we give to our members.”
Excellence: “We will be a five-star chamber. Organizationally, I hope in every moment I can model that. We want it to come through in everything that we do. We want our members to have five-star experiences. We want those businesses that have not made the decision yet to be a Chamber member to look at the organization, to look at our members and the satisfaction they have and go ‘I need to be a part of that, I want to be a part of that. I want a little taste of that.’ And we are there. We have a phenomenal Board, we have a great staff team, and I think together we will be able to achieve those things and really run in those lanes of energy, synergy, creativity and excellence. I believe if we can put all those things together, then we can truly be able to work within the community to continue to move forward the greatness that has been established and do all kinds of new things as we look down the road.”
New Community, but Texas Roots
“In my blood, I’m a Texan,” shared Aaron. “My roots are here.” Before Aaron’s family made its way to California where he spent his childhood, they lived in Texas and half of his family remained in the Houston area. Their family roots are here, and Aaron remembers as a child visiting every year for family reunions, birthdays, and big celebrations.
Aaron Cox and his family look forward to being fully immersed in the community. Aaron is relocating with his wife Tamala and son Joshua who will be attending high school in The Woodlands. When his daughter Erin, who is currently attending college, found out they were moving to The Woodlands, Aaron shared “she was overjoyed.”
Aaron looks forward to celebrating with the community and the Chamber as we look forward to a new season and honor 50th Anniversary of The Woodlands.
Aaron shared, “I love people, I’m here to serve, and I hope that each day that we walk out and that I engage with any organization…to serve, connect, and to love on people, and to fully immerse in this great community…and live out my days.”
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