About Us > Chamber History
How It Began
Members of the Boone/Kenton Chamber of Commerce and the Campbell County Chamber of Commerce were wrestling in the late 1960’s with the decision of where to locate Northern Kentucky University . Boone, Campbell and Kenton County each wanted the new university campus in their county. Governor Louie Nunn was getting impatient and said the region wouldn’t get a college if they could not decide where to put it. A vote was taken by the two chambers and Campbell County was chosen for the location.   
About the same time, business and community leaders were frustrated with the lack of progress on the Kentucky portion of the I-275. A heightened political lobbying effort was devised by the leaders of both chambers of commerce and state government responded. As a result of these two successes, the Northern Kentucky business community decided that it would be beneficial for the two chambers to merge and work together on the growth and prosperity of the region.

A Chamber is Born
In 1969, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce was incorporated to create one business organization to focus on creating a vision for the region, advocating on behalf of the major infrastructure improvements and making sure parochial differences between the three counties, 39 cities and 14 school districts did not become barriers to progress in the region.
Walter Pieschel, a resident of Ludlow who was the general sales manager of the Coca Cola Bottling Plant, was selected as the first chairman of the joint organization. Mr. Pieschel and his business knew first hand the value of a creating a brand and a reputation that crossed political and geographic boundaries. 

Chamber Develops a Business, Community Focus
In those early days and continues today, the Chamber's focus is on projects requiring and encouraging regional cooperation. In 1971, the Chamber helped establish the Northern Kentucky Area Development District to assist local governments plan in an eight county region. When the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) was struggling in the early 1970’s, the Chamber was there to successfully lobby Governor Julian Carroll for a $500,000 grant to continue TANK's operation. The Chamber then spearheaded a public education campaign asking voters to approve a 1-percent payroll tax for the permanent funding of TANK. The ballot issue gained 76 percent voter approval - one of the highest margins ever.
With an expanding airport and a good interstate highway system in place in the 1980’s, the Chamber increased its emphasis on economic development and initiated a three-county effort to assure that individual cities and counties wouldn't compete among themselves for new prospects. The result was the formation of Tri-ED, the Tri-County Economic Development Corporation, whose mission was to cooperatively promote the attraction of new businesses for Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties. Later a stable funding source was secured for Tri-ED via a tax on car rentals at the airport. 

Addressing Local Concerns at the Federal Level
At the request of the Northern Kentucky Legislative Caucus in 1989, the Chamber formed the Capital Consensus Committee, a regional group of business and government leaders, to prioritize local projects to take to Frankfort during the General Assembly. Initially, the scope of work included only the three northernmost counties, but has since grown to include all eight northern Kentucky counties contained in the Northern Kentucky Area Development District. This process has helped the region to remain focused when seeking the funding for both road and capital construction projects. The first success for this group was funding for the Northern Kentucky Convention Center . Later successes included a new Science Center at Northern Kentucky University , a regional juvenile jail and a new campus for Gateway Community and Technical College . Current priorities include a special events center at Northern Kentucky University and expansion of the Gateway campus near the intersection of I-75 and Mt. Zion Road .
The consensus process later expanded to include federal projects for the Chamber’s annual trip to Washington , D.C.  The delegation successfully petitioned Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta to get involved in settling the Comair pilots’ strike in 2001. Since then, the delegation has focused its energy on replacing the I-71/75 Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River . This mega regional initiative is now the number one infrastructure project for Greater Cincinnati and has tremendous support from all of the members of the Tristate Chamber Collaborative. 

Education Alliance
The Chamber’s goal to bring the region together has also focused on the 14 public school districts and the Diocese of Covington. The Northern Kentucky Education Alliance was created in 1990 to promote regional education initiatives and individual partnerships between schools and businesses. The Work Ethic Diploma was an outgrowth of those partnerships and last spring a Work Ethic Diploma was awarded to 1,200 graduating seniors from 26 area high schools.
 
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Leading Businesses. Leading Communities.
The history of Northern Kentucky and the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce from the late 1960’s to the present is a story about cooperation and consensus building.  It is a story about leaders who had a new vision for Northern Kentucky . And it is a story about thousands of dedicated business and civic volunteers working together toward common goals that benefit a broader community.