Flynn’s Harp: Mike Luis and The Future of Business in Seatttle

Michael Luis, then in his early 30s and a vice president with the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, recalls two incidents in the early 1990s that brought home to him that Seattle’s star was rising rapidly on the national business stage.

The first was 20 years ago this month when he walked past the office of legendary Chamber President George Duff and saw a “huge blow-up of a Fortune magazine cover with the headline ‘Best Cities for Business.’”

There was the Seattle skyline behind Boeing CEO Frank Shrontz, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Minoru Arakawa of Ninetendo of America, all pictured with then-Mayor Norm Rice. “I had glimpsed the holy grail for a public affairs staffer at a chamber of commerce,” as Luis characterized it in is just-published Century 21 City.

The second incident, which he describes as “the only time in my life I felt like a rock star,” was at a 1994 gathering of chambers of commerce staff members in Ft. Worth when “colleagues from around the country knew all about Seattle and more than a few of them asked me if I could find them a job there.”

It’s long past being news that, as the 20th Century wound down and this century began to unfold, Seattle had become a place where entrepreneurial success and innovation had put the region’s stamp on the economy of not just the nation, but also the world.

But Luis, with his background of long-time involvement in public-policy from government to housing issues, has written a book that puts some interesting perspective on the evolution of the Seattle area’s image. He delves into issues like why has Seattle been successful and what questions that haven’t been asked might be important as the 21st century goes forward.

And in describing Seattle’s evolution, he provides a detailed look at the larger question of how metropolitan areas turn themselves into the essential building blocks of the global economy.

Luis, a third-generation Seattle resident who resides with his wife and three children in the same Medina home where he and his father both grew up, has been involved for the past 25 years with the issues and leadership efforts that have impacted the growth and development of the Seattle area economy.

Elected this year to the Medina city council and now serving as Medina mayor, Luis has also been involved in projects with other cities in this country and Europe and has engaged in economic research involving regions around the world.

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