Delta Air Lines chief executive Richard Anderson is about to have a greater role in Atlanta’s civic life.
The Metro Atlanta Chamber’s directors voted on Thursday to put Anderson in line to chair the organization’s board in 2014.
He will start working with Paul Bowers, Georgia Power’s chief executive, in December. That’s when Bowers takes over as the chamber’s chair and Anderson becomes chair-elect. Both gigs are one-year terms.
The transition comes at a key time for the powerful business group, which led the effort for a 1 percent sales tax to fund dozens of transportation projects around the metro area. When voters overwhelmingly rejected the T-SPLOST in July, some questioned whether the business community had lost its influence.
Carol Tomé, the Home Depot chief financial officer who now chairs the chamber, said Bowers and Anderson will make sure the chamber is “fulfilling its mission of growing jobs and helping Atlanta thrive.”
Sam Williams, the chamber’s long-serving president, said Anderson will help guide the chamber through its Forward Atlanta initiative, a strategic growth plan unveiled this summer.
This is the biggest foray yet into Atlanta’s civic affairs for Anderson, who became chief executive of Delta in 2007. He lauded the “deep, engaging partnership” between the business and civic community in Atlanta, and said his responsibility to the city goes beyond his corporate role.
“I believe I also have a responsibility to help improve the quality of life in our city,” he said.
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