Spotlight On: Austin Whetzel

This month the spotlight is on Austin Whetzel, the new president/CEO of the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce.

At interview time, Whetzel has been in his new position for four months. He reported, “The one factor of my new job that surprised me most is how warm and friendly everyone is to me, coming in here like this. The whole community, not just the business community, is so tight-knit, like a caring family. It has been a joy for me to meet such a variety of people and businesses.”

Whetzel, happily married with one young child, feels his background experiences have prepared him for this position. “Being a BYU college student and athlete taught me how to grind. Time management was crucial, and it taught me responsibility of getting things done even when you were hurt or sick. My degree is in business strategy. After college, I was part of a team that founded a successful start-up sales and marketing business in Southern Utah that went national. I was a licensed real estate agent and keep up with marketing trends.”

Whetzel told the Progress he had his eyes opened while on a two-year church mission in Detroit, Michigan. It was very different from growing up in Utah.

“My goal is to be able to collaborate with the business community, get ideas on how to improve the chamber. I believe I have learned a lot from them just in this short time. We have over 300 members, and it has been fun talking and getting to know them better and hearing their ideas and learning about how the chamber can serve them better,” stated Whetzel.

Whetzel said his first question to business owners is, what is something you are struggling with, or what are your top three challenges? He learns from these answers. “Beginning in 2026, the chamber is going to initiate quarterly business workshops, in addition to our other regular and special events,” he said. “A lot of our members do not realize and utilize all the services the chamber can help them with.”

The workshops will focus on different components of business, such as social media, creating a content calendar, how to use AI for marketing purposes, how to use media ads and how to take and post videos. This is geared toward smaller businesses, and Whetzel will be teaching the classes. Leadership development workshops will also be added to the calendar.