San Angelo Chamber Names New President and CEO and He's from Kerrville

SAN ANGELO, TX — The San Angelo Chamber of Commerce announced today that E. Walter Koenig, III (Walt) is named President/CEO of the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Koenig comes to the San Angelo Chamber of Commerce having served as the President and CEO of the Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Director of the Kerr County Economic Development Corporation. He is a highly experienced international business executive who has over 25 years of senior management experience in the telecommunications industry and 8 years of service as a senior diplomat with the U. S. Departments of State and Commerce.

Mr. Koenig’s government service included assignments as the Lead Economic Development advisor for the U. S. State Department in Southern Iraq and service as the Senior Commercial Officer at the U. S. Embassy in Kabul Afghanistan. During his government service, he worked to foster private business sector growth through increased trade and investment. His efforts resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars of new business investment and the creation of thousands of jobs.

Koenig’s previous international experience focused to wireless communications, starting with Lucent Technologies in Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. according to his LinkedIn profile. Avaya was a wireless company that was spun off from Lucent in 2000. Koenig was appointed regional vice president of the new company in charge of the Middle East, North Africa and south Eastern Europe regions. His experience at Avaya preceded his leading a smaller company that was a supplier of parts for the cutting edge use of Free-Space Optical Transmission to transmit packet-based networks via light.

More recently, during his time in Kerrville, the Kerrville Area Chamber grew to be one of the largest and most dynamic chambers in the Texas Hill Country. During the same timeframe the Kerr Economic Development Corporation successfully recruited new businesses in the manufacturing, hospitality and retail industries. Kerr County has a population of 52,000.

Koenig faced a crisis in Kerrville when the Mooney Aircraft Company fell into financial chaos near the end of 2019. The storied aircraft manufacturer of the fastest single engine piston aircraft in the world furloughed its employees and shuttered operations over the Christmas break. Mooney had sold only nine aircraft—two M20U Ovation Ultras, and seven M20V Acclaim Ultras—in 2019, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Kerrville-based Mooney has gone through 11 owners and three bankruptcies since the 1950s. It has been owned and operated by a Chinese company, The Meijing Group, since 2013. This week, Kerrville-Kerr County Airport Manager Mary Rohrer told the Kerr County Commissioners Court that Mooney is back in business selling parts, according to the Kerrville Daily Times.

Koenig was out in front of the Mooney crisis working to attract more manufacturing businesses to Kerrville and to open new opportunities for furloughed employees there, according to reports from the Kerrville Daily Times.

Mr. Koenig’s wife is Maria Giovanna. They have three grown children. He is a graduate from University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s Degree (1983) and Master’s Degree (1984) in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

“My wife MG and I are so honored to join this fantastic community. Opportunity in Texas is boundless, and we are excited to lead a chamber of commerce that will work tirelessly to help our membership and the community to realize its fullest potential in this incredibly dynamic market.”

Koenig comes to the San Angelo Chamber as the fourth CEO since the sudden death of longtime Chamber President Phil Neighbors in 2016. Dan Koenig, not related, served from 2016 until he took a similar position in Council Bluffs, Iowa a year later. Bruce Partain took over after Dan Koenig left but resigned in November 2019.

Mr. Koenig takes the helm at the San Angelo Chamber on April 1.