Ready to Take on the Challenges of Supporting Area Businesses
Spend five minutes with Paige McKinney and you will feel you have a new friend. With gracious southern charm coupled with experienced business savvy, she is perfect for her new role as Mint Hill Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director. “I am deeply honored to have been chosen for this position and excited to learn more about local businesses and how we can help them,” Paige said.
Having lived in Mint Hill since a preschooler, her love for Mint Hill is evident. Paige went all the way through the Mint Hill school system and saw her four children go through that same school system. “This is my third day on the job, and already I have run into people I have known since grade school!” Paige said. “Because my job is mainly to help local commerce grow, one of my goals is to enhance area businesses, but at the same time keep the Mint Hill hometown feeling that so many residents enjoy.”
Paige previously served as a Restaurant Marketing Director for 10 years at Chick Filet at the Arboretum. She helped them grow sales while engaging the community and the people of the area. She went on to Promo Logic where she was a customer processor but felt she should step away to take care of her husband Greg, who was dealing with an extensive health issue. “The last four years have been a journey for us, and I have learned so much,” Paige said. “My husband of 26 years faced this adversity with grace and dignity.” Fortunately, Greg has been restored to good health, and Paige is “ready to take on new challenges.”
There to help her attend to those challenges will be Mike Cochran, who recently retired from his executive position at First National Bank. With Mike’s help as a Chamber Business Consultant, the two have a goal of meeting with each of the Chamber’s 240 business owners in the next 30 days to determine how the Chamber can help these businesses reach their objectives.
Paige and Mike will be implementing new programs meant to work side by side with area businesses. These programs will help educate and train member’s employees, get feedback, and act as a tool for financing and developing business. There will also be a Chamber website, where member businesses can post job openings and upcoming events. Add to that an Instagram account, where businesses can add pictures of what is going on in their company as promotional material.
Paige and Greg have four grown children, whom they try to visit as much as possible. With three daughters in Atlanta, New York City, and South Carolina, they are in the car and on the go. Youngest child, Wil, is heading to Appalachian State next week as a freshman, and for the first time in so many years, the McKinneys will be empty nesters. “Yes, it will be an adjustment, so this is a great time to be starting a new job. And of course, we still have the dogs!”
One of Paige’s upcoming challenges will be helping to put together the Chamber’s annual fund raising golf tournament at the Old Sycamore Golf Course on September 7th. Luckily, she is working with a “strong and talented board of directors who have the best interest of the community in mind” and will help her through these novice forays.
Paige wanted everyone to know that her door is always open and would like anyone to stop by and say “hello.” She wants to know everything that is going on in the town she loves. “I’m a Mint Hill girl and proud of it!”
