Who would have guessed in the 1970s when the City of Tualatin first started planning for growth of 20,000 people in the year 2000 that the city of 750 people would actually grow to 22,791 by 2000 and today would be home to 26,054 people? The City now includes 8.23 square miles and is located on Interstate 5 and Interstate I-205, 13 miles south of Portland.
It would not be possible for business, residents and governments to operate as smoothly if it weren’t for the expertise of Linda Moholt, Chief Executive Officer of the Tualatin Chamber of Commerce. She now serves as CEO of the Chamber which has a membership of over 420 businesses plus a major hospital that employs over 800 people. She is a visionary and has created strong links and programs to the local education system for future jobs for students.
Linda understands the employment needs of all income levels of the residents. She has been the CEO for the Chamber since 2008. One of Linda’s biggest contributions to the Tualatin community started in 2004 when she became Volunteer Coordinator for the Tualatin School House Pantry, a member agency of the Oregon Food Bank which still operates at Rolling Hills Church on Borland Road. That experience changed the way Linda looks at the world and gave her a new empathy for the working poor. She worked tirelessly to connect the local business community with needs of the pantry. She helped bring the Medical Teams International Mobile Dental Van to Tualatin; helped open the Essential Health Clinic, the only free medical clinic at the south end of Washington County; helped draft and open the Severe Weather Sheltering Plan for the Homeless in Washington County, and created a process for the Birthday in a Bag program with the pantry.
By 2008, Linda had created incredible relationships with the business community, so it was a natural transition when the Chamber approached her to become its CEO. Now her passion is to make sure that everything the Chamber touches embraces its mission and motto of “Business and Community Working Together.” The reality became only too clear for Linda.
“When there is a healthy business community and people are working, they don’t need food banks or free medical or dental clinics.” That philosophy has also led her to becoming a Champion for Workforce Development in STEAM and Career & Technical Education within the Tigard Tualatin School District. Tualatin has great jobs and great kids but the two have not always been aligned. Through the America’s Best Communities competition and the creation of the Tualatin STEAM Team, Linda has worked tirelessly to prepare students for the very diverse family-wage jobs we have right here in Tualatin.
Linda started her career in retail with Lipman’s in Portland, as a trainee recruited from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Business. After two years she became an Assistant Buyer with Meier and Frank, a demanding career that gave her many of the skills that serve her well today, including financial management, advertising and promotional budgets, purchasing plans and vendor negotiations
In addition to Chamber responsibilities, she also served on Tualatin Tomorrow, the visioning committee of the City of Tualatin, is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Tualatin School House Pantry, Past-President of Tualatin Rotary, Past-President of the Washington County Chambers of Commerce Partnership and Board Chair of the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce. She has recently joined in the formation of the Tualatin Ice Age Tourism Foundation, for fund raising for an ice age interpretive center which will further knowledge of the unique pre-history of the Tualatin Ice Age Floods that brought rich soils and attracted Oregon Pioneers to the Willamette and Tualatin Valleys plus identify the ancient animals such as the Tualatin Mastodon that lived in the area over 12,000 years ago (bones now at the Tualatin library.)
Linda has lived in Tualatin for 31 years with husband Ron and children Lauren and Spencer. Her hobbies include spending time with family and friends, gardening, reading and volunteering.
She also participates in Chamber and community events such as walking and other sports. You can learn more about Linda and her work at tualatinchamber.com/chamber/about-us/staff.
