Welcome to Memphis, Joshua Gunn. Let’s Make Growth Mean Something on Every Block.

Joshua Gunn takes the helm at the Memphis Chamber. A welcome, a look at his record, and a call for growth that reaches every Memphis neighborhood.

Memphis does not need somebody to come here and tell us we have potential.

We know.

What we need is help turning that potential into something people can actually feel: a business that lands its next contract. A young person who finds a career here instead of leaving to build one somewhere else. A neighborhood storefront that stays open, hires another employee, and becomes an anchor on its block.

That is the opportunity in front of Joshua Gunn, the newly announced president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber. His selection, announced November 6 following a national search, brings a leader whose background spans chamber leadership, economic development, workforce development, and public policy.

So, first things first: Welcome to Memphis, Mr. Gunn.

We want you to win. Because the right kind of success at the Chamber should mean more opportunity for the people who already call this place home.

Gunn most recently served as director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for the City of Durham, North Carolina. More recently, before Memphis, he led the Glendale Chamber of Commerce in Arizona.

Recruiting a major employer deserves attention. But so does helping an existing Memphis business become strong enough to hire five more people.

Our expectation for this next chapter should be straightforward: business recruitment and business retention must sit at the same table.

The Chamber already has a Small Business Council and has reported efforts to deepen engagement and help owners understand certification programs. Gunn has an opportunity to build on that foundation—not pretend nothing existed before he arrived.

The question is how useful that support becomes in an owner’s working week.

Can a business get a clear answer about available financing? Can a qualified local vendor get in front of a corporate buyer? Can someone explain which certification matters for the contracts that owner actually wants?

A networking event can start a relationship. The next step should help that relationship turn into business.

For this editorial welcome, that is one of the clearest priorities we would put on the table: make the Chamber easier to navigate, and make participation lead somewhere.

The Chamber identifies workforce issues as part of its advocacy work. Gunn’s Peoria record also includes participation in a Regional Workforce Alliance focused on developing local talent alongside recruiting people from elsewhere.

That combination is important.

We should welcome new talent to Memphis. We should also insist that people already here have a practical path into the opportunities being created.

Our challenge to the Chamber is to keep asking the questions that connect a workforce announcement to a real person’s life:

What jobs are employers actually filling? What training gets someone ready? Can a working parent attend it? Is there a clear next step after completion?

And employers belong in that conversation, too. What makes a position worth staying in? Where does it lead? What support helps a promising employee become a dependable, long-term team member?

The goal should not be training for training’s sake. It should be a stronger business and a better future for the person doing the work.

Public safety, workforce development, and higher education already appear in the Chamber’s account of its 2026 legislative priorities and results. Its advocacy page also describes helping businesses navigate operational and market challenges.

That is the right territory. The next test is whether owners feel heard when they bring a problem forward.

For this new chapter, we would urge Gunn to listen closely to concerns about safety, operating costs, infrastructure, hiring, and the practical difficulty of running a business—not treat them as distractions from the bigger economic story.

The Chamber cannot police a street, set every utility rate, or fix every public-service problem. It can bring the right people together, advocate for workable solutions, and keep business owners informed about what is changing.

The most useful business organization is not the one that claims it can solve everything. It is the one that makes clear what it can do, who else must act, and what happens next.

In his announcement, Gunn spoke about strengthening Memphis’s competitiveness and ensuring that more Memphians share in the prosperity being created.

That is the line we should remember.

Because “shared prosperity” needs a practical meaning.

Our proposal: make local business participation an early question in major economic-development conversations, not an afterthought. Ask where qualified Memphis companies can compete for work. Explain purchasing requirements. Help smaller firms prepare before an opportunity passes them by.

And make sure outreach reaches beyond the businesses already comfortable in influential rooms.

This is not an argument against large investments. It is an argument for connecting them more deliberately to the local economy.

A big project becomes more meaningful when a Memphis business earns work from it, grows its team, and puts that money back into this community.

Gunn arrives talking about Memphis’s logistics strength, entrepreneurial grit, cultural heritage, and growing role in advanced computing and digital infrastructure. He also describes his career as working at the intersection of corporate growth, public policy, and community building.

Those are promising connections for a city that needs its opportunities to reach across institutions and neighborhoods.

But we do not have to choose between welcoming a new leader and expecting results.

We can do both.

Listen widely. Include the owner who has never attended a Chamber luncheon. Explain the plan in language people can understand. Report progress honestly. Tell us what worked, what did not, and what needs to change.

Most of all, help make growth something more people can recognize in their own lives.

Welcome to Memphis, Joshua Gunn.

There are people here ready to build, ready to hire, ready to learn, and ready for a fair opportunity to grow.

Let’s make sure this next chapter gives them more than a reason to applaud.

Let’s give them a way in.