Chief Operating Officer

Reports To

Chief Executive Officer

Role Type

Executive Leadership Team

Position Purpose

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is the CEO's principal strategic and operating partner. The role exists to convert the Chamber's vision and priorities into disciplined execution while ensuring the organization has the financial strength, operating capacity, leadership infrastructure, and external relationships required to expand its impact.

This is not a traditional operations- or finance-only position. The COO owns enterprise performance across finance, people, technology, administration, governance, and organizational effectiveness. The role also serves as a visible Chamber executive in the business community, building trusted relationships that help the Chamber understand emerging needs, shape priorities, and deliver greater value to members and the Charleston region.

Primary Areas of Executive Ownership

1. Strategic Partner to the CEO

Extend the CEO's leadership capacity by serving as a trusted advisor, execution partner, and enterprise integrator.

• Translate the CEO's vision, Board priorities, and strategic plan into clear enterprise objectives, owners, milestones, and measures of success.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that span teams, remove barriers to execution, and ensure follow-through.
• Provide candid counsel on organizational priorities, risk, resource allocation, talent, structure, and operating tradeoffs.
• Create the management cadence needed to keep the leadership team aligned, accountable, and focused on the Chamber's highest-impact work.
• Represent or act on behalf of the CEO in selected internal and external settings when appropriate.

2. Enterprise Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness

Own how the Chamber operates as an enterprise and ensure that people, processes, systems, and resources support the mission.

• Help lead the strategic planning process and own its implementation and reporting.
• Integrate finance, human resources, technology, administration, facilities, procurement, and internal operations into a coherent operating model.
• Clarify decision rights, accountability, and cross-functional ownership so work moves efficiently across the organization.
• Expand enterprise KPIs and establish dashboards and operating reviews that provide timely visibility into financial, operational, program, and organizational performance.
• Identify structural, process, and capacity gaps and lead practical improvements that strengthen execution.
• Build scalable processes and infrastructure that support growth without adding unnecessary complexity.

3. External Leadership and Community Engagement

Serve as a visible and trusted executive representative of the Chamber throughout the Charleston region.

• Build and maintain relationships with CEOs, founders, investors, major employers, elected officials, educational institutions, nonprofit leaders, and regional partners.
• Participate in member visits, Chamber events, leadership forums, and strategic community initiatives.
• Listen actively to business leaders, identify emerging opportunities and challenges, and bring market intelligence back to the CEO and leadership team.
• Partner with Business Creation, Membership, Workforce & Leadership, Business Advocacy, Marketing, and other teams to strengthen member value and the regional business ecosystem.
• Represent the Chamber's mission and priorities with credibility, professionalism, and an enterprise perspective.

4. Financial Strategy and Stewardship

Ensure the Chamber has the financial insight, discipline, and resilience necessary to sustain and expand its impact.

• Lead long-range financial planning, annual budgeting, forecasting, scenario analysis, treasury, investments, audit, tax, compliance, grants administration, and enterprise risk management.
• Provide the CEO, leadership team, and Board with forward-looking analysis that supports strategic decisions, resource allocation, and program evaluation.
• Oversee the finance team, with routine accounting appropriately delegated and the COO focused on strategy, performance, and stewardship.
• Strengthen internal controls, policies, reporting quality, and financial accountability across the organization.
• Evaluate revenue streams, program economics, grant commitments, and major investments to support long-term sustainability.

5. People, Culture and Leadership Capacity

Build the organizational capability and culture required to execute the Chamber's strategy.

• Lead workforce planning, organizational design, talent strategy, performance management, compensation, succession planning, and leadership development.
• Partner with the CEO and leadership team to sustain a high-accountability, collaborative, and mission-driven culture.
• Coach and develop leaders, strengthen management discipline, and ensure employees understand how their work connects to enterprise priorities.
• Improve employee communication, engagement, and the overall effectiveness of the Chamber's talent systems.
• Model servant leadership, sound judgment, humility, integrity, and respect.

6. Technology, Data and Future Readiness

Use technology, data, automation, and AI to improve decision-making, member value, and organizational productivity.

• Develop and execute an enterprise technology roadmap aligned with the Chamber's strategic and operating needs.
• Strengthen cybersecurity, data governance, systems reliability, and vendor accountability.
• Identify practical opportunities to automate work, improve workflows, and responsibly deploy AI.
• Improve the accessibility and usefulness of information across departments through better systems, analytics, and reporting.
• Ensure technology investments produce measurable operating or member-service benefits.

7. Board, Governance and Institutional Leadership

Help the Board and Executive Committee govern effectively and make well-informed strategic decisions.

• Provide clear, concise, and decision-oriented reporting on financial performance, enterprise risk, strategic initiatives, and organizational capacity.
• Support sound governance practices, policy development, Board education, and strategic planning.
• Ensure commitments made to the Board are translated into action and tracked to completion.
• Strengthen the connection between governance, strategy, performance, and accountability.

Measures of Success

CEO leverage: The CEO has greater capacity to focus on external leadership, strategy, and the Chamber's highest-value relationships because enterprise execution is well led.

Execution discipline: Strategic priorities have clear ownership, milestones, metrics, and consistent follow-through.

Financial strength: Leadership and the Board have reliable forward-looking information, disciplined stewardship, and improved visibility into sustainability and risk.

Organizational effectiveness: Processes, structure, systems, and decision-making are simpler, faster, and more accountable.

Leadership and culture: The Chamber has stronger leaders, clearer expectations, improved collaboration, and a healthy performance culture.

Community relevance: The Chamber has deeper executive relationships, stronger market intelligence, and a more visible leadership presence across the Charleston business community.

Future readiness: Technology, data, automation, and AI are being used responsibly to improve performance and member value.

Executive Success Profile

Enterprise leader: Sees the whole organization, connects functions, and balances mission, people, operations, and financial realities.

Trusted CEO partner: Combines sound judgment, candor, discretion, and a bias for execution.

Strategic operator: Moves comfortably between long-range strategy and the practical details required to deliver results.

Relationship builder: Earns credibility with employees, Board members, CEOs, founders, investors, and community partners.

Change leader: Improves organizations without creating unnecessary disruption; builds ownership and momentum.

Financial strategist: Uses financial insight to shape decisions rather than limiting the role to reporting and control.

People developer: Builds strong leaders, clear accountability, and a collaborative, high-performing culture.

Communicator: Presents complex information clearly and adapts effectively to executive, Board, employee, and public audiences.

Servant leader: Leads with integrity, humility, curiosity, resilience, and a commitment to the Chamber's mission.

Preferred Background and Qualifications

• Significant executive leadership experience as a COO, CFO, President, business-unit leader, or comparable enterprise executive.
• MBA preferred.
• Demonstrated success partnering directly with a CEO, executive leadership team, and Board of Directors.
• Broad leadership experience spanning finance and several of the following: operations, human resources, technology, transformation, strategy, administration, or program management.
• Track record of leading organizational change, building scalable systems, and improving execution across functions.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including planning, forecasting, risk, controls, investment decisions, and performance management.
• Executive presence and relationship-building ability sufficient to represent the Chamber with senior business and community leaders.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.
• Commitment to servant leadership, collaboration, regional prosperity, and the Chamber's mission.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or relevant professional credentials preferred.

Scope and Leadership Philosophy

The COO should be judged by the strength of the enterprise, not by the volume of tasks personally performed. Routine accounting, administrative, and functional work should be delegated to capable leaders and staff. The executive's highest-value contribution is to create clarity, build leadership capacity, improve execution, provide strategic insight, strengthen external relationships, and ensure the Chamber is equipped to achieve its mission.

The role requires an executive who is equally comfortable in a Board meeting, a leadership-team operating review, a conversation with a member CEO, and a working session to solve a difficult organizational problem. The successful candidate will help the Chamber operate with greater discipline, relevance, and impact while serving as a true extension of the CEO's leadership.