Gary Toebben’s surprise announcement this month that he plans to retire as the longtime chief executive of the Los Angeles Area of Chamber of Commerce July 1 marks a rare opportunity for the county’s largest business organization to adjust course.

That’s the conclusion from several local business leaders and executives, who said the organization can use a nationwide search for a new chief executive to refocus.

A number of them acknowledged the chamber’s relatively strong standing but also said the new leader will need to address the needs of the next generation of entrepreneurs, business owners and executives, especially those from Silicon Beach.

What’s more, some said, the next chief executive should flex the chamber’s political clout, devoting a larger share of resources to getting more pro-business candidates elected to local legislative bodies and trying to stop policies that can negatively impact local businesses.

The choice of the next L.A. chamber chief executive will have major ramifications, in any case, for the chamber’s 1,650 member companies and the rest of the more than 430,000 business establishments that the state Employment Development Department reports are in the county.

“I trust that the (chamber) board will cast a wide net to find a successor capable of following through on (Toebben’s) initiatives and further strengthening the collective voice of entrepreneurs and business owners in our local civic conversations and halls of government power,” Bill Allen, chief executive of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. said in an email.

Toebben, 69, announced his retirement on Nov. 9, effective July 1 of next year. In the announcement, chamber Board Chair Steve Nissen – also senior vice president of legal and government affairs for NBCUniversal – said the board picked two of its 90 plus members to head a nationwide search for a new chief executive: 2018 board chair-designate Michelle Kerrick, managing partner with the Los Angeles office of Deloitte, and 2019 board chair-designate Jerry Neuman, partner in the law firm DLA Piper.

Chamber spokeswoman Mandy Denaux directed queries about the search process to Kerrick and Neuman; repeated calls and emails to both were not returned.

New Focus

Whoever is selected will have big shoes to fill. Toebben, who took over as chief executive in 2006, is widely seen as having restored stability and shored up the chamber’s membership roll and balance sheet. Toebben’s nearly 12 years at the helm have seen the number of member companies grew a net 10 percent to 1,650, while the chamber’s budget tripled to $15 million.

Experience in running a chamber will likely be a key criterion for the next chief executive, according to George Kieffer, partner in West Los Angeles-based law firm Manatt Phelps and Phillips who served two years as L.A. chamber board chair in the 2000s.

“There is a real value in having somebody with experience running and building a chamber,” Kieffer said. “Remember, Toebben came to us from running several chambers of commerce in the Midwest and there was skepticism that he could adapt to Los Angeles. But he demonstrated that a chamber executive from outside the region can more readily pick up the political nuances here.”

But other executives said they would like to see the next chief do more than run the organization. For example, he or she will need to appeal to younger business owners and executives, especially those running tech companies.

“The tech community has not participated in traditional business organizations,” said Phil Recht, partner in charge of Chicago law firm Mayer Brown’s office in Los Angeles and a chamber board member. “One goal should be to attract these businesses to the chamber as they are an increasingly important part of the economy. They also employ the next generation of business and perhaps civic leaders.”

Some business executives also say privately that the chamber needs to be more aggressive politically.

One executive said a new chief executive should take more frequent stands against measures that could increase costs for businesses, citing the chamber’s leadership role in opposing the Measure S anti-development initiative earlier this year as an all-too-rare example.

Another business leader said a new chief executive should aim to steer more resources to the chamber’s political action committee so it can better target local lawmakers deemed unfriendly to business and help more pro-business candidates get elected.