When the well-regarded Rusty Hammer was forced to give up his post as chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce two years ago to fight the cancer that he ultimately succumbed to, the chamber conducted a nationwide search for his replacement. To the surprise of many, the board picked Gary Toebben, a veteran chamber executive from the Midwest. Toebben started his 32-year career as president of the North Platte chamber in Nebraska, then moved on to Lawrence in neighboring Kansas, where he served 18 years. He later took the helm of the Greater Northern Kentucky chamber, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Now, in Los Angeles, he’s in a business community many times larger than to which he’s accustomed. He’s also had to grapple with a highly disorganized business community that has been outsmarted and outgunned at nearly every turn by organized labor. To counteract this, the chamber has been the leading force behind the recent creation of the Los Angeles County Business Federation. Toebben acknowledges facing what he terms his “most challenging job” to cap his career, but feels up to the challenge. Meanwhile, he’s enjoying exploring Los Angeles and is making plans to resume one of his biggest pastimes: mountain climbing.

Question: You had been a chamber executive for 30 years in small communities in the Midwest. Why did you decide to come out to L.A.?

Answer: I must admit, when I was first contacted by the Korn Ferry search firm, L.A. wasn’t on my radar screen as a place to work. But the more I thought about it, the more the challenge of the job was the key motivating factor. I wanted to finish my chamber career with the biggest challenge I could find and this was it. It was a mountain worth climbing.

Q: That must have been quite a culture shock for you.

A: Well, not in the ways most people think. Yes, there was the traffic congestion, and that’s actually been one of the most jarring aspects of coming out here. Oh, and the housing prices. But once we downsized our housing choice and once we understood the traffic flow, it’s actually been pretty easy to adapt. We found the people in L.A. to be so similar to those we interacted with in the Midwest.

Q: Really?

A: Yes. I can’t tell you how many stories we’ve heard from people who either themselves were from small towns in the Midwest or their parents were. Just one example: Andrew Benton, the president of Pepperdine University. His mother baby-sat our children when we were in Lawrence, Kan.

Q: So where you are living now?

A: We’re in a condo in Pasadena. One of the advantages of downsizing into a condo is that we can spend our weekends traveling and exploring Southern California instead of raking leaves and painting rooms and tending a garden.

Q: You took over as president of the L.A. chamber under difficult circumstances as the well-regarded Rusty Hammer had to resign to battle the cancer that eventually killed him.

A: I had known Rusty Hammer for 13 years, since he was in San Jose. I first really had a chance to work with him during meetings of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives. More recently, when I came here, he had already moved back up north, so we communicated mostly via e-mail.

Q: What advice did Rusty give you?

A: Like most executives, Rusty was very good about giving me advice only when I asked for it, not unsolicited. When I asked him for background on a certain issue or situation, he was very willing to give his perspective and was always very insightful.

Q: What surprised you about the business scene here in L.A.?

A: I was surprised at the sophistication of the labor movement and the number of people they have on staff for key issues. I was also surprised by the number of elected officials who feel some allegiance to organized labor. When we saw how labor was able to move their agenda forward, that’s when the idea of a business federation first took hold.

Q: Anything else surprise you?

A: The spread-out nature of the business community here. Back in the communities I had served in, there usually was a tightly knit central core of businesses, where everyone knew everyone else. Here, nobody in business really knows anyone else. Oh, sure, there is some interaction within chambers, but not among the larger business community. That’s another reason why the business federation is so essential. If we could interact more, we could be much more effective.

Q: What do you view as your major accomplishments at the helm of the chamber to date?

A: The chamber has not been bashful in expressing its perspective on the key issues facing both the business community and L.A. Look at what we did on the living wage issue: We got 100,000 signatures to put the City Council’s ordinance on the ballot, forcing them to withdraw it and come back with another one. We’re still fighting that one. We also amended the term limits law for (L.A.) council members.

Q: What are your main goals as head of the chamber?

A: My main goal is to be a strong spokesperson for business and the community. Also, to be a voice that people recognize as representing the best interests of the business community, and also to have the clout to have some impact in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. The perception is that Los Angeles as a region doesn’t have its act together, that it isn’t as well organized as some other regions.

Q: Yes, but every leader of the chamber has been saying this for the past 20 years and little has changed.

A: Last year, on our trip to D.C., we brought 200 people from the region’s business community and local elected officials and it made a difference. In the past, people have laughed at how disorganized Southern California has been. Last year, we heard over and over again that this was the most organized Southern California has ever been.

Q: How did you first get into the chamber management business?

A: Shortly after I graduated and had been teaching for a couple years, I learned of a job opening at the Nebraska Department of Economic Development through a fraternity friend. At the time, I was making $6,000 a year as a teacher and this job was going to pay $9,000 a year. So, when I was offered the job, it was a no-brainer. They put me in charge of marketing and development for the Strategic Air Command Museum and also Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Rodeo.

Q: That must have been quite a switch for you. What was that like?

A: I found that I had a knack for marketing and development. I realized that as a teacher, while I enjoyed the act of teaching, I felt stifled in the classroom. This gave me a chance to be more creative. Much of the work centered around putting together interactive displays.

Q: And then what happened?

A: While I was at the economic development department, I learned that the North Platte Chamber of Commerce had just fired their president. So I applied for the job. And I got it. That was more than 32 years ago and ever since I’ve been a chamber executive.

Q: Why do you like chamber executive jobs?

A: Every day, you are involved in efforts and initiatives that live after you. You can make a difference in a community, a better place in which to work and a better place in which to live. It’s like accepting a call to build a community and help people achieve their economic goals and have a quality of life that makes it a fine place to raise a family. It’s really fun to go back to a community and look and say, “I remember when we raised the funds to build that overpass or carry out that initiative.”

Q: Did you ever consider running a private business?

A: Over the years, I’ve been offered a number of positions by people who were my members. Most of these folks were on my board of directors. I’ve always said, “No, thank you,” because I really enjoy the work I do. What I have considered is running for elected office, but the time never seemed quite right.

Q: Are you thinking of running for office here?

A: Absolutely not. It’s a whole different political world out here. Besides, I’ve got plenty of challenges with the chamber.

Q: You mentioned you enjoyed teaching. Have you had any teaching opportunities since becoming a chamber executive?

A: Yes. About 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to teach chamber executives in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka about how chambers work in the United States. In most of those countries, chamber membership is mandatory and enforced by the government, so they really weren’t experts at marketing themselves. There also was a reluctance to put themselves in adversarial relationships with governmental bodies.

Q: What were the businesspeople and executives like there?

A: I remember walking into the office of the Delhi Chamber of Commerce and not seeing one computer or mechanized typewriter. The executive said that when there are so many people all around, you don’t look at ways to innovate in ways that you need less manpower. Only 15 percent of the households at that time had electricity. As for the business executives, most of them I met were associated with family-owned businesses. Today, it’s a whole different story. When you hear the word “India,” you think technology, call centers, Bollywood.

Q: How did your hobby of hiking up mountains get started?

A: It really came out of my love of backpacking. My wife and I and these backpacking buddies of ours which include a minister and a mortician decided that we wanted to hike up some of the highest peaks in Colorado. We weren’t looking to be mountain climbers with all that gear, but we do use hiking poles. In the last several years, we’ve climbed 22 of the mountain peaks above 14,000 feet in Colorado. Also, one of the things I really like about climbing these mountains: It’s one of the few things that I do that I can get done in a day or two.

Q: Have you had a chance to hike up any of California’s big peaks, like Mount Whitney, or, closer to home, Mount Baldy?

A: Not yet, but I’m definitely planning to. Ron Gastelum, (the former Metropolitan Water District chief executive) who’s on my board, gave me the Web site for Mount Whitney. You have to put in an application to stay on that mountain, which I’m doing right now. If that doesn’t work, hiking in Glacier National Park (in Montana) is our second choice.

Q: Now that you’ve been here a little while, what do you think of the L.A. lifestyle?

A: It’s great. Just last Sunday, we were in Santa Monica for an art show that overlooked the ocean, then we drove up to the snow at Angeles National Forest and we ended the day walking around Old Pasadena. It’s all part of the fun of living here.

Gary Toebben

Title: Chief Executive

Organization: Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

Born: 1948; Arlington, Neb.

Education: B.S., mathematics, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

Career Turning Point: Leaving teaching job to take marketing post with Nebraska Department of Economic Development

Most Admired People: Stu Matzke, fraternity friend who encouraged him to take marketing job; Keith Blackledge, former editor of North Platte Telegraph. (“Taught me the value of cultivating good relations with the media.”)

Hobbies: Backpacking and hiking (has hiked 22 of the 14,000-foot-plus peaks in Colorado)

Personal: Lives in Pasadena with wife Janice; four children, ages 28-33; and four grandchildren