The Greater Memphis Chamber announced Friday, Nov. 6, it has named Joshua Gunn as its new president and chief executive officer.
Gunn brings more than 15 years of executive leadership spanning regional chambers of commerce, major project development, and municipal economic policy, the chamber said in a statement. A former member of the National Board of Directors for the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), Gunn has led chambers across diverse, high-growth markets and directed public-sector economic deal-making from both sides of the negotiating table. His experience includes corporate recruitment, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, workforce development, and innovation-driven economic growth.
Most recently, Gunn served as director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for the City of Durham, North Carolina. In his first year, he led the city’s recruitment and helped structure the public-private partnership for the landmark $1.4 billion AbbVie advanced biomanufacturing facility, the largest single private investment in Durham’s history. The project is projected to create 734 permanent life sciences jobs and generate an estimated $8 billion economic impact.
Prior to Durham, Gunn served as president & CEO of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, leading the third-largest chamber in Arizona across the Phoenix West Valley, and spent four years as president & CEO of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce and its CEO Council in Illinois, where he launched the award-winning Greater Peoria 2030 regional talent attraction coalition.
“Following a comprehensive national search, Joshua Gunn emerged as the clear choice to lead the Greater Memphis Chamber into its next era of growth,” said Duncan Williams, interim president & CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors. “Joshua is a proven chief executive who has sat on both sides of the table. He knows how to run a major-market chamber, structure complex public-private partnerships, and close transformative deals. His rare combination of fiscal discipline, municipal deal-structuring expertise, and national public presence makes him uniquely equipped to protect our regional momentum and accelerate our Prosper Memphis 2030 goals.”
Gunn is scheduled to officially assume his new role on Dec. 10.
“Memphis carries a corporate and logistics identity few regions in the world can match, combined with genuine entrepreneurial grit, a rich cultural heritage, and rapidly expanding leadership in advanced computing and modern digital infrastructure,” said Gunn. “I have spent my career at the intersection of corporate growth, public policy, and community building, and Memphis is the exact city built for that work. I am deeply honored to join the Greater Memphis Chamber at such a pivotal time.”
A native of Durham, Gunn earned his bachelor of arts in Psychology from North Carolina A&T State University. An internationally recognized creative entrepreneur and national speaker, Gunn has long championed the powerful connection between culture, community, and economic competitiveness, according to the chamber statement.
