Speakers

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark will headline this year’s Clearing the Path event, sharing her unique perspective on creating and maintaining a vibrant national economy. Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth will follow, providing insight on Alabama’s current workforce needs and potential solutions to tackling our state’s low labor force participation rate by investing in quality, affordable, and accessible child care.

Suzanne P. Clark is president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a director on two corporate boards, a former business owner, and an entrepreneur at heart. With a global perspective and a fierce commitment to free enterprise, Clark’s experience in the private sector deeply informs her leadership of the U.S. Chamber—the world’s largest business organization representing employers of every size and sector in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the globe. Clark has led a multiyear effort to strengthen the U.S. Chamber’s well-known influence, advocacy, and impact, while modernizing its work and attracting new members from the fastest-growing and most innovative sectors of the U.S. economy. She is a vocal proponent for policies that enable businesses to innovate, invest, and grow and helps lead the fight against government proposals that undermine America’s economic strength and competitiveness.
 
Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth, husband to Kendall and father to Hunter, Hays, and Addie, is a small business owner and farmer from Marshall County. Prior to entering public service, he worked as a youth pastor at Albertville’s Grace Fellowship Church. A co-founder of Dream Ranch hunting lodge and the Tennessee Valley Hunting and Fishing Expo, he currently owns Ainsworth Real Estate and Ainsworth Homes, which specialize in residential real estate construction and development. Ainsworth also operates a commercial cattle operation in Guntersville. After feeling the call to serve his community through elected office, Ainsworth won a seat in the Alabama House of Representatives in 2014. While serving in the House, he was a champion for Pre-K, K-12, and higher education, passed election integrity legislation, and emphasized issues relating to business, agriculture, and family values. Keeping a self-imposed legislative term limit promise, Ainsworth declared his candidacy for lieutenant governor in 2018 and received the most votes of any candidate for constitutional office on the general election ballot.  He was elected to a second term without major party opposition in 2022.