When Mike Sarvis moved to Chattanooga to head the Synovus's Cohutta Banking Co., one of the first persons he met with was then Chamber of Commerce President Tom Edd Wilson, a former banker himself.
"I told Tom Edd we wanted, as a company, to be more involved and active in the community and he immediately got me involved iin the Downtown Council, the Small Business Council and other Chamber activities," Sarvis recalls.
Seven years after first talking to Wilson, the 49-year-old Sarvis is this year's chairman of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. Sarvis, who succeeded BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Vice President Roy Vaughn in the top volunteer job at Chattanooga's biggest business association, said the Chamber will continue in the next year to promote economic development, improve the local workforce and provide business assistance and programs for the more than 2,000 area businesses that are members of the Chamber.
"Like anything, the more you put into it the more you get out of it," Sarvis says of his work with the Chamber." I know I've developed a lot of great relationships from the Chamber and I think the Chamber really helps our community to grow and be better."
In his paid job, Sarvis heads the two Cohutta Banking Co. offices in Chattanooga, which last year reported more than $81 million in deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. As a subsidiary of Synovus Corp. - one of Georgia's biggest bank holding companies - Sarvis is trying to grow the Synovus brand in Chattanooga, reaching out to many small, growing businesses in the region.
In both the business community and chamber of commerce, Sarvis knows most firms in Chattanooga are small businesses. That's why Sarvis is spending a lot of time visiting each of the 12 area councils that a part of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce.
Sarvis is a South Carolina native who earned both his bachelor's degree and MBA from Clemson University. Sarvis displays a Clemson tiger statue and family photos of his wife and three children in his bank office on the first floor of the Loveman's building. He came to Tennessee after working briefly in Dalton for Cohutta Bank and previously with First Citizens Bank in Greenville, S.C., - a city he says has undergone an automotive-led resurgence from the German auto maker BMW similar to Chattanooga's growth from the German auto maker Volkswagen.
He enjoys golfing in his spare time, and has taught his 17-year-old son to play much better than he does. He is a past chairman of the Boys & Girls Club of Chattanooga and is active in the American Heat Association, Leadership Chattanooga Alumni Association and the Clemson Alumni Association.