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Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2019/05/14/we-do-not-have-the-luxury-of-being-comfortable.html By Nick Halter – Senior Reporter/Broadcaster, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal May 14, 2019 B Kyle is a hunter. For 12 years she worked at the Saint Paul Port Authority, and her job was to hunt for businesses and get them to relocate to the city. So when the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce was looking for a new CEO two years ago, Kyle wasn’t sure she’d be a fit because her background was in economic and business development, not in the things she thought the chamber wanted in a new leader — a politically polished, savvy insider with state government relationships. She found out that she was wrong. “What they wanted were my significant relationships at the cities and the counties and the chambers and the small-business sector, large-business sector and manufacturing sector,” she said. “What I had done over the previous 12 years was built those kinds of relationships.” Now nearly two years into her tenure atop the chamber, Kyle's mission is to attract more business to the east metro while also recruiting more young people into her organization. St. Paul's office market has been sluggish, and Kyle doesn't deny it. She’s co-chair of a Greater MSP group called the East Team that meets regularly to discuss which companies are at risk of leaving, where there might be real estate opportunities for out-of-town developers, and any financing mechanisms available to attract investment in the city. “The benefit of East Team is that we do not have the luxury of being comfortable. And we say it out loud. That puts us at a tremendous advantage because we need to succeed, and failure is not an option, nor is the status quo,” Kyle said. “If we can work together as a community we are going to make big things happen.” She helped form the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit aimed at improving the city’s core. This summer the Alliance is launching a pilot program to deploy full-time staff to pick up trash, coordinate with adjacent businesses, and give directions to visitors. It’s much like the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District ambassador program. Kyle has launched a new service called Workstream that does consulting for smaller chambers, economic development entities and business alliances. The St. Paul chamber won its first contract to work with the cities of St. Paul, Roseville and Maplewood, plus Ramsey County, to help revitalize the Rice Street-Larpenteur Avenue intersection, which has a large population of immigrants and needs more investment. She said Workstream is meant to help other groups that don’t have the resources that the St. Paul chamber does with its 16-person staff, but also to diversity the chamber’s revenue, which is built largely on membership dues. Kyle, a former Army officer and later, a competitive ballroom dancer, views St. Paul much like Target Field. "It's mind boggling the challenges that project [Target Field] overcame. And why is that? It has do with the political will, the absolute relentless, fearless pursuit of what they wanted, and they wouldn't accept no for an answer," she said. "St. Paul has that same ability, but what I don’t know is if we have that same fierce political will yet. It’s something we need to develop, and if we can't develop it here, we need to go find it somewhere else and bring it here." Kyle also has an eye on her own organization and wants to make sure it's staying relevant. While former CEO Matt Kramer turned the Saint Paul Area Chamber around, Kyle said nationally there are numbers and a general feeling indicating that the relevance of chambers of commerce is declining. She wants to connect more with younger people. “Tomorrow’s people had better know about the chamber, but more importantly, the chamber had better know about tomorrow’s people because they are going to be sitting in these seats in 10 or 15 years, and if we are not engaging in what tomorrow looks like, we will be yesterday before you know it,” she said. B Kyle President and CEO of the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce Age: 54 Education: Bachelor of Arts, English and business, College of St. Benedict Family: Two children, Erin (29) and Isaac (26) Hobbies: Dancing, gardening, spending time with her family