The L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce last week tapped Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce president and chief executive Russell “Rusty” Hammer as its new president and chief executive.The hiring comes at a crucial time for the chamber. Eight months ago, the former top executive, Ezunial “Eze” Burts, resigned amid growing concern about shrinking membership and an overall loss of clout. Hammer, 47, said one of his priorities will be to reverse the slide, which has seen the number of members drop in the last 10 years from 2,800 to 1,300. In his seven years at the Sacramento chamber, Hammer presided over a period of growth that saw membership surpass the L.A. chamber.

“The key is going to be customizing chamber services to particular industries and companies,” Hammer said. “We had a similar situation up here and that’s what it took to grow our membership.”

Hammer emerged as the top choice for the L.A. spot relatively early on in the process. “He stood out because he was the only candidate who knows the business of chambers, who knows the business of running a business and who knows the business of government,” said chamber search committee co-chair George Kieffer.

Prior to Sacramento, Hammer was president and chief executive of a publicly held engineering services company, Quadrex Corp. Before that, he was a city councilman and, at age 25, served as mayor of the Silicon Valley city of Campbell. He is expected to take over in November.