La Crosse chamber’s CEO, board chair positions held by women

Heather Graves

Staff

December 23, 2024

LA CROSSE – For the first time in its 156-year existence, the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce is making history – or as the chamber says, “herstory.”

With the promotion of Beth Franklin to chief executive officer following Neal Zygarlicke’s resignation, for the first time, the chamber’s top leadership – CEO and board chair (Elizabeth Filter, president/CEO of VARC, Inc.) positions are held by women.

Never before, Franklin said, have two females served concurrently in those roles.

“It’s definitely historic in nature,” she said. “Chambers of commerce – in both leadership and membership – have historically been dominated by males in business. Up until the late 1970s, our La Crosse Chamber’s signature annual award was called the ‘Man of the Year’ award.”

Over the last several decades, Franklin said the chamber has made strides to being more inclusive.

“None of these strides have been at the expense of men, but rather due to a more inclusive view of membership and leadership,” she said. “Over the past 30 years, more and more chambers of commerce across the country are being led by female executives.”
Franklin said her and Filter’s leadership milestone is a “historic moment” that demonstrates the La Crosse Chamber catching up to changing industry norms, as more smaller chambers and nonprofits overall hire more female executives.

Having two women in these leadership positions, Filter said, highlights the progress being made toward gender equality in the business world.

“It sends a powerful message that leadership is about capability and vision, rather than gender,” she said. “This visibility can inspire other women to pursue leadership roles and demonstrate that their contributions are valued and essential. Beth and I are committed to leveraging our positions to foster a culture where everyone feels empowered to contribute and succeed.”

The journey to here

Franklin started with the chamber in 2019 as community concierge and built the First Friend Newcomer Connection Program, which was the first community concierge model in the State of Wisconsin.

In 2023, she said she was promoted to workforce strategies director.

“When the CEO position became available, I spent a great deal of time and energy considering if I should apply,” she said. “I had a desire to take the leap but had a healthy case of self-doubt. An important cabinet of people in my life whom I deeply trust and hold dear helped me frame the personal significance of me taking this next step in my career, and I decided to apply.”

The Marshfield native and University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire graduate said she felt that the chamber’s new leader would need to have a familiarity with the community, chamber members, the organization as a whole and the overall work it does – all of which she said she knew she had.

“During my nearly six years at the chamber, I built a robust network of community connections to make the First Friend program successful,” she said. “I amassed hundreds of community partners in the region on whom I could rely to buttress that program. Through my work as concierge and workforce strategies director, I gained a fair amount of institutional knowledge. I also got to know a significant number of chamber member businesses on an intimate level, becoming well-versed in their strengths and challenges. And I was happily immersed in the work of representing the chamber in many avenues and labored to meet the needs of our members.”

All of these, Franklin said, led to a no-brainer decision to apply to be the chamber’s next leader.

Fast forward to now and Franklin has just about two months of experience as CEO under her belt.

Franklin said one of the most important reasons she applied for the CEO position was because she knew she had “dedicated, high-performing teammates and a wonderfully supportive board of directors” she could count on as she transitioned into the role.

One such support, she said, was board chair and fellow female professional, Filter.

“I see Liz as a confidante,” she said. “Women can face unique challenges in leadership roles, and knowing that Liz is a seasoned and well-respected community leader provides me with comfort as I bring questions to her.”

Franklin said it has been easy to be vulnerable and honest with Filter as she encounters challenges where she feels most comfortable proceeding only after asking advice from those who’ve experienced something similar.

“I don’t often ask for help, and Liz has made it more comfortable for me to do so,” she said.

In the early weeks of her role as CEO, Franklin said she seldom asked Filter for assistance.

“I was more in the habit of providing updates about what I was encountering and working through,” she said. “But, within a day after our weekly meetings, an email would appear from Liz in my inbox with resources to make the path a bit easier, demonstrating she was clearly deeply listening and anticipating potential needs. She’s been an excellent listener and cheerleader for me and our entire team.”

Filter, a Viroqua native, said she was originally part of the chamber’s advocacy group.

“I joined so that I could be more aware of and assist in influencing decisions that affected the business community in La Crosse,” she said.

In 2012, Filter said she was asked to join the chamber’s board of directors, and “graciously accepted.”

“After moving into a position on the Executive Committee, I was asked to chair the board and again humbly accepted the opportunity,” she said. “My time on the board has been filled with incredible insights about the strengths and challenges within our La Crosse business community. I’ve had the unique opportunity to hear about the complex issues surrounding small businesses, our downtown district and our area’s institutions and corporations.”

Part of her role as chair, Filter said, included navigating the board through the interviewing, hiring and transiting of the chamber’s new CEO.

“Luckily for me, Beth is a very fast, highly competent learner,” she said. “She transitioned from a director-level role within the chamber and picked up an additional full-time set of responsibilities while fulfilling her previous functions during the interim of her director replacement. My hope is that support from me has looked and felt like grace mixed with an appropriate level of challenge.”

And though humbled to be part of the historic moment, Filter said “all credit needs to go to Franklin.”

“She is the chamber’s real leader – I just attend board meetings and hope I’m steering folks in the right direction,” she said. “Beth and the chamber staff are independent, dynamic and love the La Crosse community fiercely. Beth and I would be doing the same work without the accolades. We just so happen to be two women leading at the same time.”

Ready to get to work

Franklin said as she continues to get her feet under her as CEO, her core focus from the beginning has been her team – making sure they feel comfortable with the transition.

“I’ve been working to re-engage and energize them,” she said. “I’ve been listening to their needs and pain points as a colleague over the years, and after I accepted the CEO role, I was ready to move into problem-solving mode to help facilitate making processes more efficient and improve internal communication.”

Because she’s not new to the organization, Franklin said she has the added benefit of knowing each of her teammates’ strengths, having been their colleague for years.

“It’s been very rewarding turning them loose in areas where I believe they’ll thrive,” she said. “We’ve truly been working as a team on solving problems together, and it’s refreshing and energizing. We are constantly in conversation about how to better serve our members and, furthermore, what that looks like in practice.”

Since she entered the CEO position with the chamber on relatively stable ground, Franklin said she plans to be more “evolutionary than revolutionary, if you will.”

“The chamber does a lot of things right, and we want to maintain the strong reputation we have and build on it,” she said. “I do feel it’s important, as we grow, to figure out what it looks like to bring more people to the ‘chamber table.’ I’m reflecting on what voices haven’t historically been at our proverbial table, and what it looks like to bring them in.”

The goal of the chamber team, Franklin said, is to grow an even more diverse membership and expand programming to meet the diverse needs of businesses and the broader community.

“In recent years, the chamber has made great strides in positively impacting the larger community of Greater La Crosse, and I want to amplify that,” she said. “I hope to set my team’s strengths at the forefront as they tackle their areas of purview.”

Franklin said she will look to include more programming that is specific to women and women-identifying individuals in the business world – a desire she said she’s heard from members over the years.
“We hold an annual Women’s Leadership Summit, but we’ve heard from quite a few folks that they’d like the support of women in business to extend beyond a one-day event,” she said. “We’ve curated a list of 20-plus women-identifying individuals in our business community who are eager to be a part of a focus group to help us guide what that ongoing programming looks like. We’re excited to see where that takes us.”

Being a woman in a leadership role with the local chamber, Franklin said, is “incredibly meaningful.”

“I have two college-age children – one female and one male,” she said. “In so many of the big decisions I make on a daily basis, I reflect on whether my actions and my choices would be something I’d be proud to tell my children about. I want to be a good role model to both of them. I want them to see a mom who can find the reward and the joy in doing hard things.”

Franklin said she wants her kids to see someone succeeding in a role “she never imagined herself in, but is so glad she found herself in.”
“Professionally, I feel so proud to be on the bottom of a long list of strong, impressive female executive leaders across businesses and nonprofits in this community,” she said. “I’m in excellent company and look up to so many of my peers. I hope I can provide guidance to others who are considering making a leap toward a leadership role like I did, and repay the favor of those in my life who provide me with support.”