San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce President Ruben Barrales on Thursday announced that after six years of service, he will no longer be the top executive at the chamber come 2013.
“Today, I made the decision to announce to the board of directors of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce that I will be stepping down as CEO by the end of 2012,” Barrales said in a release.
Chamber spokeswoman Ashley Hause said Barrales was preparing to board a flight early Thursday afternoon and was unavailable for further comment.
The reasons behind Barrales' announcement were not clear Thursday.
Hause said she could not confirm the specifics leading up to the executive’s decision. She would not comment on whether or not the Chamber wanted to renew Barrales’ contract. The executive post at the Chamber comes with a three-year term. Barrales will be leaving after completing his second term.
“All we can say is what’s in the statement,” Hause said.
When asked if there were any reasons the Chamber might not want to renew the contract, Hause again said, “I can’t speak to that.”
“It was Ruben’s decision to announce to the Board this morning,” Hause said. “That’s really all we can say.”
In prepared remarks, Barrales wrote of his advocacy efforts on behalf of small business, pension reform in the city of San Diego and a strengthening of the binational economic relationship with Mexico.
“Despite the recent recession, the Chamber’s financial resources have reached a record $2.3 million cash on hand to assist the Chamber with future growth,” Barrales said. “I am leaving the organization better now than when I found it six years ago, and there is much more work to be done. It has been a great experience and I am proud of what the Chamber has accomplished.”
Along with Barrales’ prepared statement, the Chamber released reaction from Mark Leslie, the 2012 chairman of the Chamber.
"Ruben has been a strong leader for the Chamber, and an effective advocate for the business community,” Leslie said. “He guided the Chamber through tough economic times, and we have benefited from his leadership. He leaves the Chamber in a strong financial position and ready to take on new challenges.”
He went on to call Barrales a “class act,” and a “hard act to follow.”
Leslie denounced the wording of earlier-published reports that said the Chamber was effectively “terminating” Barrales.
“It was the rudest thing I’d ever seen, the way that they put the ending on that,” Leslie said by phone Thursday.“We are not releasing Ruben Barrales because of an issue, dissatisfaction, failure to perform. He was a wonderful and very good, solid contributor to the turnaround and success of the Chamber in the last six years.”
His contract is simply not being renewed, Leslie added, reiterating several times that Barrales’ performance is not the reason for the non-renewal.
There was no pressure from the Chamber’s Board of Directors for Barrales to leave, Leslie said.
But that did little to clear the picture, as Leslie added that he could not say the same thing about any pressure from anywhere on the outside.
“There was no pressure from the Board of Directors to let Ruben go, but the Board of Directors does not make a decision about the CEO of the organization — the management committee does.”
Among others, the management committee includes Leslie, the Chamber’s immediately former chair, Vince Mudd, and the chair-in-waiting, San Diego Gas & Electric President Michael Niggli. That committee, Leslie said, simply made a decision.
“Just like we would with anyone else, we reviewed the situation at the Chamber, where we stand, where we’re looking to go forward,” Leslie said.”And we decided, and discussed it with Ruben, that we would not renew his contract.”
The context of the discussion with Barrales, Leslie said, is privileged, and Leslie remained tight-lipped about any reasons the management committee had for deciding as it did, be they any influences from Barrales, the management committee, or a combination of the two.
When asked if he would have liked to see the contact renewed, Leslie did not provide an answer, saying that doing so would “create more conversation” no matter his answer.
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