Emily Falappino
Emily Falappino
For new Greater Coachella Valley (GCV) Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Emily Falappino, living and working in the GCV/Palm Springs region of Riverside County is a stark difference from doing the same over in Los Angeles.
Falappino, who joined the GCV Chamber of Commerce in July, previously served as the CEO of the Temecula Chamber of Commerce. She bounced back and forth between Temecula and LA before settling in the smaller resort city to raise her daughter, where she began her work in scaling businesses and optimizing work environments.
Falappino has natural business vision—a gift for finding a business' best resources, points of profitability and sustainability strategies, she says. While in Temecula, she worked with businesses in hospitality, tourism, logistics and software development for 15 years.
After her daughter graduated from high school and flew the coop, Falappino joked that she had a midlife crisis and set her sails for Los Angeles again, not yet knowing that she would fill the vacancy of the Temecula Chamber of Commerce's retiring CEO.
"I had no interest in working for the chamber. It didn't even cross my mind," Falappino said. "But all these people in the business community that I had worked with suggested I apply."
To appease, Falappino applied, but she still only saw the LA lights on her horizon and had even accepted a job offer in the City of Angels when she received the offer from the Temecula Chamber.
"It was the offer of my dreams, in the industry I wanted, the track that I wanted, way more pay than I expected. It was everything," she recalled of the LA job. "So I'm negotiating the last round with that company, they make their final offer, and I just... couldn't say yes."
Falappino sat quiet on the phone, the silence loaded between them.
"This is the part where you say yes," The recruiter dryly told her, and when still an acceptance wasn't given, asked Falappino how much more money the other job in Temecula was offering.
"It wasn't money. It was meaning," she confessed. "Because the work of a chamber has so much impact, not only in the present moment but over time. It has a ripple effect. When you impact one employer, you impact their employees, their families. When you impact businesses, you change employment, consumer spending, taxes, quality of life, community investment and pride."
Time, Falappino said, is the one commodity that all people share, and she wanted to spend hers wisely. So she called up the Temecula Chamber—an "amazing powerhouse organization," she said.
"There are all these cool things that a chamber does that most people don't readily see. We act legislatively, we exercise our muscle in support or opposition to bills that are about to pass. We protect employers for the long haul," she said.
Falappino was a brand-new community leader with no prior chamber experience when COVID hit. She suddenly felt the eyes of dozens of businesses that needed to know how to keep lights on and pay employees upon her.
"I just thought, 'I have to completely lean in. I am going to lead,'" she said.
In the Riverside County Economic Recovery Task Force, Falappino first met the leaders from GCV including Josh Bonner, former GCV Chamber President and CEO.
"I instantly had a lot of respect for them. I could tell they managed a huge economy. They were really thoughtful and had a lot of influence. I often referred to them with my own team, saying look what they did there, let's emulate that."
Later, when Bonner invited Falappino to apply for his position, she was stunned. She was only a year and a half into her current role, and had no experience with a regional chamber jurisdiction like GCV's, which saw massive socioeconomic differences just driving from East Coachella to Indian Wells.
But Falappino was drawn to the area. She noticed its bountiful natural resources and land prime for development. She saw the seasonality of much of the population as an interesting challenge.
"I wondered how to make [GCV] the best version of itself," she said.
There were heart pangs in leaving Temecula, its chamber and all of her work there behind, but she has big goals in GCV.
"I am two months in and haven't regretted the decision at all. Every day that I wake up and drive down the streets here, I am totally captivated by the mountains, the sun, everything that I see."
In this new position, Falappino's goals include continuing to support GCV's $9 billion tourism and hospitality industry while exploring the capitalization of the area's resources.
"We have every resource needed to create different types of energy, and I think that if we were really intentional and cultivate that, we could maybe create some more STEM education out of our natural resources," she said. "We should work together as a region, not just individuals. With renewable energy we can create quality industry jobs."
Falappino describes herself as a "life person." She is eager to learn the history and culture of every city and culture in her new role's reach, and on a mission to warm her new community up to new opportunities.
The new CEO is investing in her leadership team.
"I have a small team right now that we are going to grow. I'm very excited about that. We will make sure that our organization is really effective, I want everyone in the valley to be confident about that," she said. "We're here to hear everybody and we're here to help everybody."
