John (JP) Perlich

Tell us about your background. 

I currently serve as the Senior Director of Government Affairs at the St. Paul Area Chamber, advocating for member businesses and organizations. I have accumulated a wealth of public, private, and nonprofit sector experience including stints at the Steve Rummler HOPE Network, Ainsley Shea Communications, and various capacities with the Wisconsin GOP, the Wisconsin State Senate, and the Committee to (Re)elect a Republican Senate. Besides the WIB, I serve on the boards of Majority in the Middle, Amethyst Recovery Solutions, and the Domestic Policy Caucus.

Share about your role at the St. Paul Area Chamber. 

At the St. Paul Area Chamber, my role is to advocate on behalf of our 1,700+ members and affiliates to promote public policies at the state, county, and municipal level that will benefit the East Metro (Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties) business community. To maintain and grow a vibrant, innovative, inclusive, and agile economy, we need public policies that promote, not hinder the employer community. Besides the advocacy/lobbying work, I lead our voter education effort, the East Metro Voter Guide, to provide a digital platform for voters to learn more about candidates running for office and to see how those candidates policy positions support employers, employees, and economic development in their communities. 

Businesses face many challenges, including difficulties meeting their workforce needs. How does the Saint Paul Area Chamber support the business community, particularly around workforce? 

At the Chamber we use the term “making connections that count” which drives our work. We don’t do this work in a vacuum but with some great private, non-profit and government partners. Full Stack Saint Paul, the East Team, and Ramsey County Workforce Solutions are just a few of the groups we work with to grow and support our workforce. No one group, organization, or unit of government can solve these complex problems, we need collaboration and input for myriad stakeholders. Building a bigger table and scooching over a bit brings more solutions into the mix. Over the past couple of years, we also stood up our Career Connect job fair to provide high school students the opportunity to learn about different career paths. Our third annual Career Connect will be October 15, 2024 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. 

What are some new ways the Saint Paul Area Chamber will support local businesses as part of the Elevate Futures initiative?

The St. Paul Area Chamber is a grateful participant in the Elevate Futures initiative. We’ve partnered with our colleagues at the Minneapolis Regional Chamber to provide training and resources to employers to increase their understanding and awareness of the impact of inclusion strategies on job quality, recruitment and retention, and workforce equity. Another segment of our grant work is to help employers gain skills and insights that enable them to remove barriers, improve workplace culture, and offer jobs that lift up workers and families and makes their businesses more competitive. Our Elevate Futures team will engage employers through a variety of opportunities across the Twin Cities metro designed to connect and match employers with jobseekers, examples of these connections are job fairs, occupation-specific hiring events, mock interview corps, employer job quality initiative, and elevatefutures.com.