by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
This will be hard to believe, but it’s true.
During the very first two Chamber of Commerce meetings he attended, Mike Hightower didn’t a say word.
At the first he sat in the back of the room and just listened. At the next, he was allowed to sit at the table. He didn’t ask a question, answer a question, offer anything.
This coming from arguably one of Jacksonville’s most outgoing, gregarious personalities — one who’s as equally comfortable in the White House as City Hall.
“I was sent as a surrogate to a board meeting,” said Hightower, a lobbyist for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida who is wrapping up his year as chair of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the second-largest chamber in the country.
In 1981 — the year Hightower joined BCBS as director of governmental relations — the Chamber’s board of directors consisted of the top local company owners, CEOs and managing partners. At the time, Blue Cross was represented on the Chamber’s board by former CEO Bill Flaherty. That May, Flaherty had a scheduling conflict and asked if Hightower could attend the meeting in his place.
“The rule was no surrogates and I was just a director,” explained Hightower about his second Chamber meeting. “Bill made a call and said if the Chamber wanted Blue Cross to be a part of it, Mike Hightower was coming to the meeting. At that meeting, I sat at the table but I didn’t say anything.”
Hightower said those two meetings proved to be foundation-laying learning experiences. He met and became friends with some of Jacksonville’s most powerful and influential people. As the years progressed, Hightower migrated towards the Chamber’s government affairs division, a natural for someone who spent a majority of their time lobbying in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. on behalf of his employer.
“We all worked in Tallahassee and we formed ‘The Lodge.’ The group of guys looked after Teala Milton (of JEA) who was one of very few women lobbyists in Tallahassee,” he said. “I never forgot those two incidents and they made a lasting impression. That was a huge learning experience for me.”
As the 1980s became the 1990s, Hightower connected with Tom Petway, John Rood, Marty Fiorentino and others interested in seeing Jeb Bush get elected as governor of Florida. That partnership evolved into what became known as “Team North Florida.”
“It was extraordinary in that we helped each other and hung together,” said Hightower, who succeeded Miller Electric President and CEO Ron Autrey as Chamber chair. “It’s the genesis of why Northeast Florida has strength in numbers. We stayed together and worked for a common cause.”
Hightower’s employer also understood the value of having one its most visible employees active on the local level, especially in an organization that balanced business interests with political sway.
“I have always had incredible support from Blue Cross Blue Shield. They are a huge, huge supporter of me being allowed to be involved in the community,” said Hightower.
After serving as chair of the Chamber’s Government Affairs Committee six times, the leadership of the Chamber decided it was time for Hightower to branch out. Chamber Chair Ed Burr asked him to oversee the Membership Committee with an initial goal of raising $850,000 through new memberships. Hightower was able to raise $1 million the first year and $1.3 the next. Then, the rumors started that Hightower was in line to become chair-elect and his resume was more than adequate. Over the years, Hightower had helped get Bush elected governor, John Peyton elected mayor, he served as chair of the local Republican Party and he’d been involved in Chamber leadership for over two decades.
“Having been involved for 25 years, I thought, what a huge honor to be chair. The firewall was I was not a CEO, I was not a company owner, I was not a managing partner and I was not a major stockholder,” he said. “There was a process, criteria and traditions.
“So, I went to the Blue Cross Blue Shield chairman and asked for permission. I knew I needed to be the best chairman ever. I did not want to be a bad choice. They (former Chamber chairs) had set the bar high. Several former chairs, nine of them, rallied around me.”
After being asked to succeed Autrey, Hightower spent the year watching and learning; something he did in 1981 as an observer of two meetings he had no business attending.
“Ron is a lot quieter than I am and I learned to listen. He has incredible insight. He reinforced the importance of friendships. He has an incredible sense of humor and he’s very calm,” said Hightower. “Also, Ron included everybody. When he did something for the Chamber, he thought outside the box. Usually, we go on one Chamber Leadership trip a year. Under Ron, we did three. We went to World Village locally, then Charleston then China.”
Once Autrey’s year ended, Hightower was able to begin implementing the ideas he’d been hatching for six months. He admits he spent the first six months as chair-elect being excited about being chair-elect.
Hightower settled in and focused on five areas: IMPACTjax, the Chamber Political Leadership Institute, its board of directors, the area councils and the military.
“The area councils are the heart and soul of the Chamber,” he said, explaining that area councils include 4,000 members. “They are the face of Jacksonville. If you have never been to a Chamber Council, you have missed out. That’s where I get my energy from. That was the part I enjoyed.”
IMPACTjax consists of 600 young professionals age 26-40. Hightower calls them the “mainstream young professionals” who work for the companies that comprise the Chamber membership. Of those 600, 46 were paired with 46 mentors for the purpose of preparing them to become Jacksonville’s future CEOs, presidents and managing partners.
“If we do not identify the next generation of leaders and get them ready, Jacksonville will not move to the next tier,” he said. “We can’t leave it to chance. Will they make mistakes? Yes. Will they skin their knees? Yes. Will they do dumb things? Yes. The next generation of leaders doesn’t have the luxury of 35-40 years to learn.”
The PLI was created to help find Jacksonville’s next wave of political leaders. Out of 99 applications, 28 people were identified as potential elected office holders. They attended classes here and across the state and learned how to run for office and what the business community is looking for in political leadership.
“I have absolutely no doubt, out of those 28, 6-7 will run for office in the next couple of years,” said Hightower, who will turn the Chamber chair role over to Wachovia’s Kelly Madden in a few weeks.
Hightower also spent a lot time over the past year working with the Chamber’s board to make its members more visible in the community.
“The past year was one of the best for memberships. We raised $1.5 million. It is the Chamber that sparked the enthusiasm for the Jaguars,” he said. “We had 1,400 people at the (November) Cornerstone meeting. I didn’t realize what we were doing until it got done. Every Chamber chair thinks his board is the best. I am no different.”
An Air Force veteran, Hightower also focused on the Chamber’s relationship with the local military — and for good reason. The military accounts for the livelihood, directly and directly, of about 250,000 people in Northeast Florida and has an economic impact of about $8 billion annually.
“It’s natural for the Chamber to become a full partner with the military,” he said. “There is an $8 billion stimulus to the economy that doesn’t go away no matter what happens on the stock market.”
Overall, Hightower says he’s give himself a grade of B-plus to A-minus.
“I do not know what I’d do differently because of the global economy and the challenges,” he said. “On a personal basis, I feel like I went to school and I learned more about Jacksonville than ever before.”
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