Mehner leaving Cape Chamber after nearly three decades

A man who has led the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce longer than anyone before him, John Mehner, has announced he will step down as the organization’s president and CEO later this year after nearly three decades on the job.

Mehner made the announcement Wednesday in an email to chamber members.

“I have decided this year, 2021, will be my last here at the chamber,” he said in the email.

However, the message went on to say while he is leaving the chamber, he is “not retiring” and he is considering new career paths that will keep him involved in the local business community.

“There’s still some more for me to do (outside of the chamber) that I think I can be very effective at,” he told the Southeast Missourian, but he declined to elaborate. “We’ll talk about that later.”

Mehner hasn’t decided when his last day will be, but says it will be no later than the end of the year.

“I’m here basically through 2021,” he said. “We still have a lot of stuff to do, so everything is business as usual.”

The search begins

In the meantime, a seven-member search committee has been formed, headed by chamber board chairman Aaron Panton, regional president at The Bank of Missouri. Panton said the committee, representing a cross section of community stakeholders, has requested proposals from several executive recruitment firms that specifically work with chambers of commerce to identify leadership candidates. He said the committee will take its time in selecting Mehner’s successor.

“It would be foolish for us to rush through the process,” he said. “We’re not going to put a timeframe on this.”

One of the first steps, Panton said, will be to work with a search firm to “help us identify what the community needs” and the leadership qualities an ideal candidate should possess in order to be a good fit for the chamber and the community as a whole.

Depending on how the search and selection process goes, Panton said it’s possible a new chamber president could be on the job before Mehner leaves the position.

“If the timing works out, there could be some value in having some overlap,” he said.

From police work to chamber leadership

A 1981 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in criminal justice, Mehner was an officer with the St. Louis County Police Department until 1985.

“At that time, doing this (leading the Cape Girardeau chamber) was probably the furthest thing from my mind,” he said. “I didn’t even know what it was, but after four years as a cop, I came back (to Cape Girardeau) and worked with my dad (Jack Mehner) at Advanced Business Systems for eight years. That’s when I first started volunteering and figured out what the organization was.”

Mehner was elected to the chamber board in 1990 and was the board’s chairman in 1992. He was also instrumental in establishing the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association (later to be known as Cape Girardeau Area Magnet) and was serving on its board when chamber executive vice president Robert Hendrix announced his retirement in 1993 after 21 years on the job.

“When he decided he was going to retire, I thought, ‘I’d love to do this,’ but I didn’t know whether I had a snowball’s chance in hell,” Mehner recalled.

Former Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger was the manager of the J.C. Penney store in West Park Mall in the early 1990s and served as vice chairman of the chamber board under Mehner in 1992. He succeeded Mehner as chairman of the board in 1993 when Hendrix announced his retirement plans.

“We were preparing to do a search for Bob’s replacement when John called me and said, ‘I need to have lunch with you,’” Rediger remembered. “He looked me in the eye at lunch and said, ‘I want that job.’ That took me back because I had no idea he’d be interested.”

A national search attracted about 70 applications from which four finalists, including Mehner, were selected for on-site interviews. Although the other three finalists had been chamber executives elsewhere, Rediger said Mehner was clearly the best choice.

Cape Girardeau businesswoman Judy Wilferth, who chaired the search committee, agreed.

“We wanted the best candidate,” Wilferth said when Mehner’s appointment was announced. “We brought in three candidates from out of town, and they were very good, but John was much better. He was by far the best choice.”

“It was one of the best decisions I have ever been involved in and that our chamber has ever been involved in,” Rediger added. “It was obvious to us that he could hit the ground running, which he did and he’s been running ever since.”

Challenges and achievements

Looking back on his 28 years as the chamber’s president, Mehner said the organization and business community have weathered “many, many, many” challenges.

“We’ve been through lots of downturns in the economy, and right now we’re going through an employment challenge and finding people for jobs,” he said.

Of all the challenges, Mehner said the COVID-19 pandemic is at the top of the list.

“But this community responded and pivoted and many businesses figured out ways to survive,” he said.

Asked to comment on the chamber’s accomplishments during his tenure, Mehner is quick to give credit to everyone he has worked with over the years, both on the chamber staff and throughout the organization’s membership ranks.

“We couldn’t do anything we do without an engaged membership and a supportive business community,” he said. “It’s a collective ‘we’ and always has been. That’s what makes this area strong from a chamber standpoint.”