Chamber of Commerce's Win Hallett on City's Future

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Mobile's "look" has changed over the last 20 years with new additions to the downtown skyline and waterfront.

Win Hallett, President of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce says Team Mobile is responsible for the change. 

Hallett sat down to talk about the chamber's role and the Port City's outlook for the future.

Thrown into the fray

"It was a magnificent opportunity, this is without question the best job in the community if you really care about the community," Hallett said.

A passionate leader, Win Hallett has been in charge of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce for more than 21 years.  He brought two decades of experience running a small business to the job with him.

Hallett said he was 22-years-old when his father died. That event forced him to undergo a crash course in running the family's building materials business. Hallett said his livelihood, as well as that of his sister and mother, depended on him learning fast.

"I found out very quickly they don't give any discounts for youth and so you had to figure out how to run," he said.

He learned how to make payroll and decisions on deploying capital and delegating people.

Hallett spent 20 years doing that but his industry changed. In late 1990, Hallett had to close the more than 70-year-old family business.

"One of the things I learned is many times in life the Lord makes you shut one door, before he allows you to open another door,"

Hallett said a friend told him to look into the Chamber of Commerce as a way to make money doing what he'd been doing for free before while also helping the community. In fact, several friends encouraged him to consider the chamber.

More under the surface

He did. In doing so, he quickly understood the chamber's role in improving and developing Mobile. He said the chamber helps businesses remain profitable and expand and give additional job opportunities. They work behind the scenes with businesses to understand their industry's specific needs.

"It's like an iceberg, you see the upper 10 percent." Hallett says.

Hallett believes that getting Mobile to see itself as an All-America City in 1995, brought about change.

"The first 5 people I talked to about doing that looked at me as though i'd been out in the sun too long, like you're a stark raving idiot," he said. "I mean, they literally laughed at me."

According to it's website, the All-America City Award is given to ten communities in the US who demonstrate "successful efforts to address pressing local challenges."

"We won it the first time around and what that did was help set the expectation that there are good things happening," he said.

Hallett said the goal was to change the city's mindset from "ain't it awful" to "we can do better than this." He said Mobile had a strategic approach in going for the award and improving the city every day.

"I think the part that sets Mobile apart is that we have the team approach, Team Mobile. We do not care who gets the credit, we had to drive all the ego out of it, we were doing it for the community not for ourselves," Hallett says.

"Getting the RSA tower here took 7 years, the Mitchell Cancer Institute 10 years, the new container port at Choctaw Point 15 years. The reality is that worthwhile things usually take a lot of time," he adds.

Always going up

Hallett believes the evidence of the widespread improvement lies in the fact that Mobile is now a destination. He said the city has a bright future with 48 companies looking to possibly make an investment here.

"These are not people just kicking the tires; they've got the money and they want to be here. There are so many things on the horizon that can be transformational for this region," he said.

Mobile is truly an international city, according to Hallett, as the headquarters of several of the Port City's top companies are based over seas.

Hallett says the chamber's commitment is to see Mobile do better than it's doing now and with an expansion of the Panama Canal coming within the next two years, more companies are looking at Mobile.

Hallett feels that enhancing quality of life for Mobilians "is what the chamber is about."

"Convening people, where we can move forward together, the region growing and hopefully prospering now and then into the future, that's the payback, that's really the reward," Hallett adds.