Rawl named Lexington Chamber chief executive

Otis B. Rawl Jr., former head of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, has been named president and chief executive officer of the Greater Lexington Chamber & Visitors Center.

Rawl, who was raised and lives in Lexingon County, will formally take the chamber’s reins on Feb. 29. However, he said Wednesday he is working part time this week meeting with staff and will likely begin full time on Monday.

“They’ll get a couple free weeks from me,” he said.

Chamber chairman Marvin Robinson, vice president and business relationship manager of Wells Fargo, South Carolina, told The State that Rawl initially will be meeting with the chamber’s membership, setting up “touch points” to maintain contact with members throughout the year, and growing and retaining members. The chamber has about 1,000 members.

“Otis’ background and experience made him the ideal candidate for our chamber,” Robinson said. “His impact on the Chamber and our members will be immediate and powerful.

“Otis comes from here,” Robinson added. “He has a lot of personal connections that will serve him well and serve the chamber well.”

Prior to joining the Greater Lexington Chamber, Rawl served as chief executive of the S.C. Chamber from October 2008 until the end of 2014. Rawl joined that organization in 2001 as vice president of public policy and was named chief operating officer in 2008. Rawl has been in charge of that chamber’s overall operations including public policy, legislative affairs, workforce development, administration, membership, and communications.

Rawl said he is going to work to make the Lexington organization “more of a business chamber than a social chamber.”

“We need to focus on things that create business and jobs for our members and their employees,” he said.

Also, Rawl said, his work with numerous local chambers in his prior role will help him promote regionalism in the Midlands. That effort to form the Midstate Coalition began about five years ago and spun off from the region’s failure to land service from Southwest Airlines at Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

“We need to work with Columbia and other local chambers to help businesses relocate to the Midlands,” he said. “We need to be competitive with the Upstate Chamber Coalition and the Tri-County Alliance in Charleston. We haven’t gotten looks (from potential businesses) that we should have gotten.”

Before his career with the S.C. Chamber, Rawl worked with the S.C. Department of Revenue for more than 20 years. In addition to his work at the Revenue Department, Rawl served a six-month term with the S.C. State Treasurer’s Office performing legislative work on several major tax bills and local reporting of debt limits.

Rawl said he will use that experience to lobby lawmakers and work with state agencies to form policies that will benefit Midlands businesses.

“We need to be working together on policy at the state level,” he said.

Rawl replaces Randy Halfacre, who retired at the end of last year.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 5:32 PM.