Quinlan leaves Arizona Chamber after a decade of service to statewide business association

Farrell A. Quinlan’s last day on the staff of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is Monday, January 15, 2007. He has been a vice president of the organization for a decade, most recently serving as Vice President of Policy Development and Communications.

Quinlan is not ready to make an announcement concerning his next career opportunity. He has a number of options available to him in organizational management, government relations and public relations in Arizona and nationally.

Quinlan has served as spokesperson for the statewide business community for 10 years. He has been a key developer and implementer of a wide-range of organizational initiatives including: media relations; government relations, policy development and lobbying; coalition building; initiative, referendum and political action committee campaigns; political research; strategic planning; marketing; event management and messaging.

Highlights of his tenure include:

Media Relations: Quinlan has been quoted regularly in Arizona and national press on a wide-range of political and business topics. His opinion pieces and on-the-record comments have appeared in numerous print media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Arizona Republic, Arizona Daily Star, The Business Journal, Congressional Quarterly, East Valley Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Tucson Citizen, Phoenix Magazine, Inside Tucson Business, Arizona Capitol Times, Washington Times, Campaigns & Elections, Bloomberg and the Associated Press. He has been an expert guest or official spokesman on numerous broadcast media programs including FOX News Channel, Voice of America, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Horizon (KAET-TV), Face the State (KSAZ-TV), The Phoenix File (KUTP-TV), The Barry Young Show (KFYI-AM), The Liddy & Hill Show (KFYI-AM), Business for Breakfast (KFNN-AM), KJZZ-FM, KNST-AM, KPXQ-AM and KTAR-AM.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Quinlan was responsible for the Arizona Chamber initiating an immigration policy stakeholder process in the Summer of 2003 that culminated in the organization’s leadership in opposing 2004’s Proposition 200 and the creation of a comprehensive immigration reform agenda for the statewide business community. Through his efforts, the Arizona Chamber has received national recognition for its early identification and proactive approach to immigration reform issues. He is a much sought after spokesperson on state and federal immigration issues having appeared on the Fox News Channel, National Public Radio and numerous Arizona outlets as well as in leading national publication like the Washington Post, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He has served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Labor Relations Committee and its Immigration subcommittee since 2004.

Policy Development and Lobbying: Before launching the Arizona Chamber’s immigration policy efforts, Quinlan received national recognition for creating a top state-level lobbying effort to urge Arizona’s congressional delegation to vote in favor of extending normal trade relations to China and clearing the way for accession of China into the World Trade Organization. He served as the organization’s Federal Affairs representative and worked closely with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in their many initiatives on trade, workplace regulation and taxation. Quinlan managed the public policy development process at the organization for an eclectic mix of policy areas including air quality; banking; economic development; education; employee relations; energy; environment; government reform; health care; immigration; infrastructure; insurance; legal affairs; natural resources; solid and hazardous waste; state budget; taxation; technology; trade; transportation; water quality and quantity; and workforce development. He was registered with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office as an authorized lobbyist for the Arizona Chamber 1997-2007.

Coalition Building and Grassroots Development: Quinlan has been the point man at the Arizona Chamber in building permanent and limited organizational coalitions to support policy initiatives, legislation and political campaigns. Some of the issue areas where he has organized such coalitions include health care, property tax reduction, immigration reform and unemployment insurance reform. He also introduced the idea of formalizing the loose relationship between the state chamber of commerce and the scores of local chambers across the state into a standing committee of the Arizona Chamber. This Local Chambers Committee meets every week during the legislative session to discuss the business community’s legislative priorities and coordinate lobbying and grassroots efforts to support it. He has also developed grassroots lobbying strategies that include the creation of a 40,000-strong Arizona business database and the creation of web-based grassroots tools to communicate with congressional and state policymakers on critical issues for business.

Political Leadership: Quinlan has served on the steering committees and as a fundraiser for numerous ballot proposition campaigns, political action committees and independent expenditure efforts. Most notably: 2006’s Proposition 202 (against) establishing a state minimum wage, 2006’s Proposition 207 (in favor) eminent domain reform, 2004’s Proposition 101 (in favor) limiting state spending by ballot proposition, 2004’s Proposition 104 (in favor) initiative reform, 2004’s Proposition 200 (against) anti-immigration efforts, 2000’s Proposition 202 (against) growth boundaries. He has established and maintained standing political action committees for the Arizona Chamber including Arizona Chamber PAC and an independent expenditure committee, BizPAC, for which he served as treasurer for both. In his capacity as spokesperson for the Arizona Chamber, Quinlan has been a regular protagonist in print and broadcast media advocating the business community’s position on dozens of controversial political and legislative topics.

Political Research: Quinlan has long been an advocate of developing a robust political research effort at the Arizona Chamber and elsewhere. Early in his career, he served as a research intern for members of Congress and as an opposition research operative for the Republican National Committee during a presidential election year cycle. At the Arizona Chamber, Quinlan worked to build a policy research and analysis capability for the organization that included the development of a 501(c)(3) foundation to concentrate resources on providing the business community with valuable data to inform policy development. He has also had extensive experience developing and analyzing market research and polling instruments.

Event Management: Quinlan successfully integrated the Arizona Chamber events lineup into a coordinated package of old and new events that supported the public policy mission of the organization and tripled the gross income from events to over $500,000 annually. The annual gala Arizona Heritage Award dinner, annual golf classic and numerous issue-specific policy seminars (five Western Energy Summits, five Arizona Health Care Summits, eight Arizona Environmental Law Symposia, employment law seminars, an immigration reform summit and a litigation reform summit) all achieved new heights in attendance, profitability and relevance under Quinlan’s management. He also created the Arizona Chamber’s popular VIP speakers series that featured gubernatorial and congressional candidate debates, congressional and presidential candidate breakfasts or luncheons and events with Cabinet secretaries, Fortune 500 CEOs and Nobel Prize laureates.

Strategic Planning: As a senior executive staff member of the Arizona Chamber, Quinlan has been a key contributor to strategic planning and development for the organization covering marketing, membership, board recruitment and development, events, government relations and public relations.

Marketing and Branding: Quinlan has twice lead efforts to re-brand the organization including the most recent changes in 2005 that resulted in the changing of the organization’s name to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry to better reflect the width and breath of the group’s membership and public policy focus. Both efforts included the adoption of new logos and the development and relaunch of the www.azchamber.com website.

Community and Civic Involvement: A graduate of The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. with a bachelor of arts in political communication, Quinlan is involved in many community and civic groups. Most notably: Gov. Janet Napolitano appointed him to serve on the Arizona State Quarter Commission, which is charged with developing the design of the U.S. Mint’s 2008 Arizona quarter and organizing the special coin’s rollout ceremonies in May 2008; he serves on the board of directors of Drugs Don't Work in Arizona!, a drug-free workplace initiative; and, on the advisory board of the Arizona School Choice Trust, which awards private school scholarships to needy K-12 students. He is also active in the Republican Party, serving as precinct committeeman and as Legislative District 20 2nd Vice Chairman. Quinlan and his wife Heidi live in Chandler with their two dogs (an Akita and a Pembroke Welsh Corgi).