The state’s largest business advocacy organization started the legislative session with a new leader for the first time in decades: Vanessa Green Sinders. And perhaps what is most surprising about Sinders’ new role is that she’s only lived here since 2022.
Sinders, the first female president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, officially took over for outgoing longtime Indiana Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Kevin Brinegar when he retired this month.
State Affairs sat down with Sinders to talk about herself, the upcoming legislative session and her plans for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, one of the most influential lobbying organizations in the state.
This conversation, which took place before the start of the legislative session, has been edited for clarity, brevity and length.
Q. Tell me about yourself. What do you want me to know about you?
A. Well, I’m excited to be here. Excited to get to talk to you. My husband and I moved to Indiana 18 months ago. He is a born Hoosier, grew up in Clay County, went to [Indiana State University], started working for former Sen. Dick Lugar, including in Washington, D.C., which is relevant because that’s where he and I met.
I am from New England, but spent 20 years in D.C. in a variety of government and, I call it, government-adjacent roles. My first 10 years, I worked on Capitol Hill for two different United States senators, first as policy director, then as chief of staff. Then my second 10 years in D.C., I was chief of staff for a nonprofit issue campaign think tank focused on fiscal issues. I headed up government affairs for the national trade association that represents the hotel industry, and then most recently, I was at Charter Spectrum, the fortune 100 cable and broadband company in 41 states including Indiana. I led their federal advocacy efforts.
After 20 years, my husband and I just decided we were ready for a change. We have two young boys, a first grader and a third grader. As I think many people in Indiana have found, Indiana checks all the boxes for a family. So we decided to move home, as my husband calls it. We settled in Indianapolis in the summer of [20]22. Our kids go to one of the IPS schools three blocks from our house. We have loved the transition and the opportunity to be here.
I feel so honored to have this opportunity to work for the chamber and be part of such an impactful organization. One, I think it brings together a lot of my background and experiences and skill sets. But for me, I have always been someone that has wanted to do good and make a difference in your community. It’s why I first went to D.C. and got involved in politics. So I feel so lucky to be able to work for an organization that is so impactful, with a mission that is focused on advancing Indiana, helping bring continued economic prosperity and growth to business and to all Hoosiers, make this state the place that people want to live, work and visit.
Q. Is this your first time living in Indiana?
A. Yes, my husband and I ever since I met him, we were coming back and forth a lot to Indiana to see his family and given that he was working for the former senator. I really liked it. I loved just all that it had to offer, and it was an easy decision when we were deciding to leave D.C. about where we wanted to go, and it has not disappointed.
Q. When you left Washington, did you have any idea you’d end up here leading the Indiana Chamber?
A. No, when I left D.C., I started my own business, a small consulting firm, women-led, and that was really fun. Then this opportunity kind of sought me out a little bit, and I went through the process and every conversation I had, I just got more excited about the people here, that mission, the opportunity to really be part of the community and drive positive change. I again feel very honored that I get to be part of this great team and build on the success that Kevin and the team have put in place over the last, chamber has been around for over 100 years. [It’s] done a lot of great things during that time.
Q. You’re new to Indiana, you haven’t lived here a super long time. Did you have any qualms about leading an organization that advocates for Indiana businesses?
A. No, I am someone, probably you can tell from my background, that likes a challenge. I’m not afraid of a challenge, and I like to do different things. Working on Capitol Hill for two different senators, you are a master generalist and have the ability to learn pretty much everything at the highest levels of government and be part of lots of really great leadership conversations. And I spent time in the hotel industry, in telecom, doing fiscal issues, so I feel like I have a very good background dealing with different business issues.
To me, this seems like a natural fit and opportunity. I think it’s a great opportunity to build on the success of what Kevin and the team has put together and bring some new energy and excitement and an opportunity to do even more great things, and meet people and learn, and just really do lots of good.
Q. As an outsider what have you noticed Indiana’s biggest challenges are since you arrived?
A. You will notice, I’m a very positive person, glass always half full. So I think one of the things that I love about Indiana is the sense of community and the support and the expertise and just the investment in the state, from focusing on advanced industries, to the universities and institutions of higher learning. Back to the advanced industries, whether it’s manufacturing, life sciences, biotech, other health care, agriculture, [financial technology], there’s so much exciting work going on here. So it’s a great opportunity.
You also can look at it as a challenge of how do we keep that going? How do we make sure we have the workforce that we need to keep that economic growth and that economic engine going, whether that’s providing folks who are already in Indiana with the skills and the training they need to exist and take advantage of all of these great opportunities, or continuing to attract and retain new talent, that people like me who are adopted Hoosiers, but who figure out that it is a really great place to be, and making sure that we continue to support that pipeline of talent.
Q. Are there any changes that you plan to make to either the organization or how it advocates for causes at the Statehouse when you officially move into the role?
A. I’ve said this many, many times in different audiences. When I think about the future of the chamber I think about it in three areas.
One, advocacy, our bread and butter. How can we continue to make sure that that regulatory environment is such that business can be successful, and that we create this environment where people want to live, work and visit? We will continue to think about how we prioritize the issues that we work on to maximize our impact and think about where and how we use our voice, again, to maximize impact. I think that as the broad-based business organization in the state, we have an opportunity to continue to provide thought leadership on big policy issues, whether that’s workforce, whether that’s AI, whether that’s infrastructure. We have expertise on our team.We have over 4,000 member businesses across the state, including 57% of our members are small businesses, so [we can] utilize all of that experience and knowledge to help kind of figure out what are the policy solutions that we need to tackle some of these big issues.
Then member engagement is another pillar for me. We are a membership organization, and so making sure that we are out and about around the state, visiting and interacting with our members in all 92 counties, and really connecting and engaging them, and making sure that they have an opportunity to work with us on whatever advocacy or other issues that we’re working on, is really important to me and important to the future of the chamber.
My last pillar is partnerships. I am a leader who feels very strongly about bringing people together and driving towards consensus and collaborating. I think that the chamber has a really great opportunity to do that on behalf of the businesses across the state, working again with public, private, nonprofit stakeholders to try to help convene, coordinate, collaborate on some of these big issues and opportunities that the state has to continue to be successful.
Q. In the past, the chamber has gotten involved in some social issues. There was hate crimes legislation a few years ago and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Both of those were before your time here in the state, but how involved do you think the Indiana Chamber of Commerce should be in social issues like that, that don’t seem to have a direct tie to businesses necessarily?
A. So I guess how I would answer that is to say that, as the statewide broad-based business organization, we are focused on the business issues most directly impacting business, promoting economic growth and prosperity. At the same time, we’re a membership organization, and so we typically engage on issues where we have consensus or alignment amongst our membership or our leadership within our membership. So that leads to not getting engaged on social issues and staying focused on the issues that are core to business.
Q. One of the topics that I would throw in the social issues category is one of the chamber’s priorities for the 2024 legislative session: supporting driving privilege cards for undocumented residents. Why is that an important issue for the chamber to still weigh in on?
A. We’re happy to connect you to the legislative lead on that to get into the specifics of that. That issue has ties to economic growth and making sure that people who are driving have insurance and are part of the system and actively participating in our insurance system and our economic system in the state.
Q. One of the chamber’s other priorities is expanding child care access. All of the solutions that were pointed out for the 2024 legislative session aren’t fiscal based. Why do you think it’s important that this is on the chamber’s priority list? And do you think that these non-fiscal solutions will make a big enough impact?
A. When we talk to employers and our businesses, child care is a big issue and a potential barrier to workforce, to companies and businesses. Again, we see child care as more of a workforce, economic business issue, because we are here to make sure we are helping businesses have the workforce they need to continue driving that economic growth and creating prosperity for the state.
And, you probably know better than me, but this is a non budget year, so the solutions we’re going to be proposing are typically non-budget. It just speaks to one of the things we’re talking about is how can the state rulemaking process be accelerated to streamline some of the regulations for child care providers, again thinking about supply, wanting to of course, do it in a way that is very cognizant and respectful of all of the sensitivities and dynamics and making sure that our child care providers are what they need to be to support children. Also supporting child care workers through existing grants for their child care needs to make sure that we are supporting as robust of a child care system and environment in the state as we can.
To us it really ties directly to our core mission around economic growth, workforce being like [the] number one issue for every employer.
Q. One of Republican legislative leaders’ main goals for the 2024 session is to hold back more students who don’t pass the IREAD test in an effort to increase reading comprehension in the state. Is that something that the Indiana Chamber has talked about yet? Where do you stand on that? [This conversation took place before the legislation was filed.]
A. I have not seen the specifics of any proposal but K through 12 education is extremely important to the workforce and to our vision plan for the future and where the state needs to go. Obviously, literacy and reading is such an important part of that early education and that foundation. So we, of course, want to, working with legislative leaders, working with the governor, working with the secretary of education, working with other stakeholders, work through what those solutions are to help address reading and literacy.
I don’t have to tell you the statistics around how only 40% of Indiana students in grades three through eight, achieve their language arts and English ILEARN assessment where they need to be. So it is an issue, and we need to address it, and the chamber wants to work with the legislative leaders and others to do that. I think that what exactly those specifics look like, we look forward to learning more and working on that.
Q. Ending on a lighter note, what do you like to do in your free time?
A. I mentioned this at the annual dinner. Some people sometimes ask me, ‘How do you always be so positive and have some energy?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, because I go to Orangetheory a lot of mornings at 6:15 in Broad Ripple.’ But all joking aside, Orangetheory and exercise is important to me, my family and kids are important to me, our community is important.
When we first moved here, I got involved in our school’s PTA. I’m chair of one of the committees there. I’m still doing that. I was just there this morning working on a holiday lunch thing quickly. And so family, friends, community and keeping up with my kids is what I do in my spare time.
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