Chamber pays steep price in buying out Neal

Departing chamber exec apparently isn't going away mad, just going away... with a lot of cash

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Mike Neal

Tulsa-bound Nashville Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mike Neal is slated to receive a hefty going-away present from his former bosses.

NashvillePost.com has learned that chamber leadership has approved a $300,000 buyout package with Neal, who had two years remaining on his contract with the business organization. It is unclear whether the deal is has been finalized with Neal. He will soon be relocating to serve as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce in Oklahoma.

The payoff would amount to about a year's pay for Neal. His salary in 2005 was $274,000, and he received benefits and expenses worth an additional roughly $35,000, according to a publicly disclosed Internal Revenue Service filing by the chamber.

Sources familiar with the severance package say that they are concerned that the sum will put the Nashville chamber in difficult financial straits for the near future, as the cost is considered substantial in relation to overall finances at the organization.

Neal is widely believed to have been not-so-subtly pushed out of Nashville due to differences with members of the chamber's governing board, including its new chairman, Zycron Inc. CEO Darrell Freeman.

Meanwhile, there are whispers through the downtown business community that the position once held by Neal has been wired for Ralph Schulz, CEO of Nashville's Adventure Science Center. In comments to NashvillePost.com this afternoon, however, Regions Bank Group President and Chairman-Elect of the chamber Ron Samuels stoutly disputed the notion that Schulz has an inside track for the job, noting the number of would-be chamber leaders who have already put their names in for the position.

"We have nine or ten applicants already," Samuels stated, "and I know of another three individuals who haven't completed the forms yet who are applying. It hasn't even been a week since this job was posted, and already we are hearing from people who are substantially capable for this very desirable, high-profile position. There is no such thing as this being wired."

When asked to comment on the proposed severance package and search process, Janet Miller, interim co-executive director for the chamber, said: "Anything on the search process or concerning Mr. Neal is confidential, and we unfortunately are unable to comment."

Neal himself could not be reached for comment.