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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake Chamber President and CEO Lane Beattie got a big surprise when he was honored as the business organization's "Giant in Our City" during its 130th anniversary celebration Friday night.
"I didn't know they were going to do that. It was a very kind thing for all of them to do and a real, real pleasure," Beattie said of the honor, presented at the gala by past chairmen of the chamber's board of governors.
Beattie said he'd responded "absolutely not" when it has been suggested some time ago that he should receive the recognition bestowed on a long line of Utah leaders, including former 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
So when Beattie, who has headed the chamber for 14 years, noticed the past chairmen attending the black-tie event at the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater getting up from their seats, he wasn't sure what was happening.
He was emotional when he took the stage with his wife, Joy, and accepted the award during an evening marking on the growth of Salt Lake City and the state under the chamber, which dates back to 1887.
"It was truly an honor," Beattie said. "Just to know the men and women who have received the Giant in Our City. It's so rare. The quality, and I mean that sincerely, of these people who have given so much to our city."
Board Chairman Keith McMullin, president and CEO of Deseret Management Corp., the parent company of the Deseret News and KSL, said Beattie was "so deserving of the honor and recognition."
McMullin said Beattie, a former Utah Senate president who helped ready Utah for the 2002 Winter Games as the state Olympic officer under then-Gov. Mike Leavitt, is well-acquainted with those in governance as well as the business world.
He said he's "been impressed with Lane's ability to deal with controversy and there is no little bit of that when there are differences of views among powerful interests. He is able to walk that line and the ability to compose issues."
Last year's Giant in Our City winner, retired chairman and CEO of Questar Corp. Ron Jibson, said he enjoyed Beattie's reaction.
"We tried to keep it a surprise and I think it worked," Jibson said. "I think he was totally surprised last night. It was just the right thing to do. Lane Beattie, in his time as CEO as president of the chamber, he's just done such a remarkable job."
Jibson, who served as chairman of the chamber board in 2013, said, "It was really a fun thing for all of us as past chairs of the chamber as past recipients of the Giant award to see Lane get that."
Scott Anderson, also a former chamber board chairman and the president and CEO of Zions Bank, said, "Lane is a giant in our state and I am thrilled he is now being recognized and given this title, Giant in Our City, by the chamber."
Anderson said Beattie's "work has helped keep our economy strong and our neighborhoods flourishing; his leadership has been recognized and praised for the chamber’s proposals on health care, homelessness, clean air, immigration, education, economic development and diversity."
Gov. Gary Herbert said he appreciates Beattie's friendship and leadership.
“The chamber has been an integral part in helping the Utah story be told, and to have the success we’ve had as the best performing economy in all of America today; upward mobility, best place for business, largest growing middle class, great tributes coming in about Utah because of the efforts of Lane Beattie and the Salt Lake Chamber,” the governor said.
Under Beattie, the chamber has focused on issues impacting Utah’s economy, including pushing in 2006 for funding the I-15 CORE project in Utah County and the expansion of the Utah Transit Authority's light and commuter rail lines.
Beattie is one of only two chamber presidents in the United States who also sits on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100 and was named to the U.S. Chamber board of directors in June 2011. Email: lroche@ksl.com Twitter: DNewsPolitics
