Pushing for Progress

West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts has spent more than 30 years working to make life better for West Virginians, and his expertise allows him to help make the Mountain State an attractive home for future generations.

Roberts speaking at the 2014 Annual Meeting and Business Summit.

By Samantha Cart

A Huntington native, Steve Roberts has spent his entire professional career striving for the advancement of West Virginia. In 1983, at the age of 26, Roberts became the youngest chamber of commerce president in the country when he began his eight-year stint at the Huntington Chamber of Commerce. Roberts’ next step was accepting a position in human resources and government relations with the BASF Corporation. The company wanted to move Roberts to its North American headquarters in New Jersey; however, he and his wife, Anne, did not want to leave their beloved West Virginia home. It was at that time that John Hurd, longtime president of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce (WVCOC), retired. Roberts was offered the position and has held it for the past 23 years.

Under Roberts’ leadership, WVCOC’s membership has grown to more than 5,000 businesses and individuals, a growth he contributes to an amazing volunteer base and hardworking staff. As the president of the state chamber, the state’s most prominent issues, including energy, job creation, infrastructure, broadband, business, education and population downswing, are his areas of expertise, and his knowledge of how the chamber and the Legislature are working to solve and address such concerns is expansive. As the state’s largest and most visible advocacy organization, the WVCOC works to promote employment and improve the quality of life for West Virginia families. Roberts considers the chamber to be the Mountain State’s premier economic development and education think tank and networking hub. He believes that, together with the new Legislature, the chamber can help move West Virginia’s business climate toward a more employer- and education-friendly culture.

Roberts and his staff are thrilled about the progress made during the most recent legislative session and fervently believe it will improve the state in several meaningful ways. “The 2015 legislative session might have done more to improve the business climate than has ever been done in any one legislative session,” says Roberts. “Topping the list are legal reforms to assure fair trials, cost savings for taxpayers, education improvements and juvenile justice reform. The session saw more pro-job and pro-economic legislation than any other state session in the nation in modern times.”

According to Roberts, what will be most difficult for the state going forward is transitioning from a coal mining economy to an economy that is not so heavily dependent on any one industry. “We need to speed up and think a little faster on our feet, and we need to be open to new ideas,” he says. “The Legislature has shown a willingness to help both the mining and natural gas industries, but they need to go even further and do more. However, while we do need to look at every option on the table, we still know that more than 60 percent of the nation’s electricity is created by fossil fuels. We can help the nation with its electricity needs. Coal is undoubtedly going to be used in the future just like natural gas, so we need to develop industries that take advantage of natural gas, bring research facilities to West Virginia and be there when our nation struggles to produce its base power load.”

The chamber has identified six areas it believes will create employment opportunities for West Virginians, and number one on the list is manufacturing. Since 1980, West Virginia has gone from having 130,000 manufacturing workers to having approximately 48,000. The staggering losses have left the state 37th in the nation for the percentage of work force members that hold manufacturing jobs, and surrounding states have seen significant growth in this area. Roberts and the chamber staff have encouraged the creation of policies that stimulate the growth of manufacturing businesses and jobs. “West Virginia has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and it is trending up,” he says. “Unfortunately, we have been in almost last place for job creation for the past 30 months. We are simply not creating jobs even though we have an abundance of natural resources and an extremely loyal work force. I think it is very important to be aware of how we’re doing and then look for what we need to do to improve our standing.”

The chamber is also working with the state’s universities to innovate, attempting to secure major federal contracts, encouraging entrepreneurialism and small business development, attracting businesses like banking and insurance services and increasing tourism. “These are just some of the ideas we have for how we would increase employment and put more people back to work in West Virginia,” says Roberts. “We have a reputation for being one of the most loyal work forces in the country, but it means nothing without the jobs to showcase that loyalty.”

Education reform is another major topic in West Virginia and across the country, and Roberts believes this is the key to reinvigorating the work force. “Manufacturers and businesses have told us what they need, and it starts with an educated work force,” he says. “We need to talk more about the performance of our schools. We are in the top 20 in spending and near the bottom on performance in the country. We spend a lot and get poor results, and we need to look at the reasons why. Why is this happening? What needs to change? If we care at all about the state, its future and our children, we need to take care to remove ourselves from the bottom of the performance list.”

Job creation and education reform may also be the key to solving another major issue in the Mountain State: population decline, especially in millennials. Illinois is the only state that has lost more population than West Virginia in the past decade. “We haven’t stressed the importance of keeping young people and millennials in West Virginia, and if we want to keep them, we have to listen to them,” says Roberts. “One of the things we need to take more seriously is listening to the needs and wants of younger West Virginians. They want to be connected, they need high-speed Internet and they value diversity. We have to make sure we are open-minded to the things that are important to the next generation, but we need jobs. People can’t live where they don’t have jobs.”

One topic Roberts consistently comes back to is the need to listen to business owners and follow their lead. “There is a great need for policy, and lawmakers have to listen to businesses and be guided by what they tell them,” he says. “Regardless of whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, women, men, black or white, our business owners are people of goodwill who love their state, but in many cases, our state leaders have not listened.”

Giving current businesses what they want can have positive effects on the overall economy. According to the business colleges at Marshall University and West Virginia University, nearly 90 percent of all new jobs come from existing businesses in most states. “What we need to do in West Virginia is make sure our existing businesses remain happy. We need to hear their concerns and respond to their needs,” says Roberts. “When existing businesses say we need broadband, we need to listen to them. When they say we need to solve the drug problem, we need to listen to them. When they say we need to live in a place where we are assured a fair trial, we need to listen to them. The businesses that are here have already shown us the way and given us the answers.”

Roberts’ passion for the Mountain State stems from his love for all his home state has to offer. “I love the people, places and scenery, but mostly, I love our resilience,” he says. “West Virginians are loyal, they love their state and they care about each other. They very much want to work to improve our state and make it everything that it can be.”