Granbury Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Scott will retire Dec. 31 after 15 years with the Granbury chamber and more than 23 years in chamber and economic development related organizations.
Scott is a Fort Worth native and he and his family retired in Florida in 1993 after he completed 28 years as a naval aviator. Scott logged 120 combat missions in Vietnam, commanded a Naval Air Station, a squadron and was Air Boss on the USS Saratoga (CV-60), the chamber said in a news release.
Scott was development director for a Florida state college when he accepted the Granbury chamber job.
“We had long hoped to come home to North Texas and when I saw the chamber job pop up, I jumped at it,” he said, “and we never looked back.”
Scott’s previous chamber and fundraising expertise helped him double chamber net assets in the first two years with an overall three-fold increase during his tenure.
“Mike has definitely put the chamber on a very firm financial footing that has allowed us to weather the current challenges,” said Board Chairman Elizabeth Crawford.
Scott has been intimately involved in numerous business and community initiatives including bringing Weatherford College to town, establishing the Granbury Education Foundation, contracting with the city and county to provide economic development for the region, and as a member of the founding group of the Lake Granbury Watershed Protection Plan.
Scott’s strong support of GISD workforce education programs garnered his recognition as Business Leader of the Year by the Career and Technology Association of Texas (CTAT) in 2017.
During the beginning weeks of COVID-19 Scott raised more than $200,000 in private donations distributed to 87 Granbury/Hood County small businesses as micro grants.
During his tenure the chamber won more than 30 annual awards for marketing programs and initiatives, including nine International level awards from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals for the chamber’s annual Area Guide and Membership Directory.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with exceptional business and community leaders and the best staff ever at the chamber, both now and in the past,” Scott said in the announcement. “Granbury and Hood County are changing rapidly – it has been especially noticeable in the past few years. We need to continue to work with our regional neighbors/leaders/colleagues to stay ahead of the rapid growth of our state and region.”
Scott and his wife Susan “plan to visit grandkids in Florida and travel extensively throughout our gorgeous nation in our recently purchased RV. We hope to hit most of the parks and attractions in the West initially, returning to the Flying S Ranch in Granbury to refuel, regroup and check on our son, who will be holding down the fort.”