'We're home now': New chamber chief ready to tackle Wichita Falls' economic challenges

Ron Kitchens says he is ready to move into his new home, plant some trees, and go to work on improving the economy of Wichita Falls.

Kitchens, 59, is the new president and chief executive officer of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce. He said he sees his new job as more than just attracting new business and industry, but also getting more people to work at a time when many are leaving the workforce. Kitchens said he's going to work hard to tell everyone “how amazing the history and business and community are.”

Kitchens comes at a time when the city is recovering from the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and a major mission at Sheppard Air Force Base over the past two decades. Wichita Falls also saw a drop of population in the 2020 U.S. Census.

Isolated community

Kitchens attributes part of the problems to the city’s geographical location.

“I think it’s the isolation. We don’t have the benefit of bleed-off from other areas,” he said, referring to the halo effect communities nearer to large cities have had. “We’re the primary economic engine, so it’s harder if you don’t have that synergy with other places. We don’t get a lot of people passing through and stopping. We haven’t had that exposure that we need for people to understand the quality and the opportunities here. We’ve got to do a better job of telling our story."

Sheppard AFB key area for population, economic growth

Kitchens said the incremental growth at Sheppard is a key for population and economic growth.

“That’s the only place right now we’re going to see those big buckets of population growth come from,” he said.

He puts a priority on growing the industries that are already here and working with the educational community to ensure Wichitans have the skills necessary now and in the future.

Coming back to Texas

Although he comes to Wichita Falls from Birmingham, AL, Kitchens is no stranger to Texas. He was president of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation early in his career. He also served 16 years as senior partner & CEO of Southwest Michigan First, a privately financed economic development consulting businesses in seven counties. Kitchens said that group was capitalized through private individuals and was an $85 million community-based venture fund which invested in more than 100 companies. It also performed traditional economic development activities and helped establish a new medical school.

After that he served as chief executive of the Birmingham Business Alliance, a job he began in late 2020 and left this past March. He said the Birmingham operation was a “shotgun marriage” of merging groups that “struggled to find their footing.”

Ready to enjoy life in Wichita Falls

He said he applied for the job here because of what he knew about the community. He said he was close friends with former local chamber executives Tim Chase and David Leezer.

“When people you trust tell you things, then you ought to believe them. That’s what drew me,” he said.

Another factor was a promise he made to his wife, Lynn, to move back to Texas.

“My wife likes sweet tea and grits. Our goal was to spend the rest of our career and our lives in Texas,” he said.

The couple has one adult daughter who lives in New York City.

In addition to working in economic development, Kitchens has written books about business development, engaged in speaking tours and delivered more than 300 podcasts. He said his travel in those pursuits will probably slow down because of fewer conferences now than in the past. He also feels his podcasts have run their course because, “now it’s so noisy out there.”

He said he will probably start some form of podcast about the business community here to “to sell the community both internally and externally on how amazing we are.”

Overcoming difficult early years

Kitchens is the product of a tough early life. He was born in California, lost his father to a foundry accident when he was four and moved through more than a dozen schools before the family settled in Ozark, MO. By age 12 he was helping support his widowed mother and sister. He bought some convenience stores in Ozark and by age 21 was on the city council. He took his first economic development job in Warsaw, MO.

Poverty was not the only adversity Kitchens had to overcome.

“I’m dyslexic. I grew up struggling academically. I always had to work harder than most people,” he said.

A life-long learner

He said that struggle imbued him with a sense that knowledge was power.

“I love learning. I like teaching and talking to people,” he said.

Kitchens earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Missouri State University, did graduate work at the University of Missouri and graduated from the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and the Harvard Negotiations program.

Although he’d done a lot of moving around in his career, Kitchens said he plans for Wichita Falls to be the last stop.

“We’re home now,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: New chamber chief ready to tackle Wichita Falls' economic challenges