After more than three decades of building relationships, solving problems and driving investment across Hamilton County, Steve Hiatt, director of existing business development for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, will retire at the end of 2025, leaving behind a legacy that has shaped Chattanooga for the better.
Hiatt’s path to public service began early. Raised in Florida, he moved to Tennessee in 1975 and attended Chattanooga State and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, graduating in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
Long before he went to work each day championing economic growth for his city, Hiatt was advocating for improvements as assistant editor of The Perspective, Chattanooga State’s student newspaper. In its first-ever issue, he wrote a front-page story urging officials to install a traffic light at the campus entrance. While at UTC, he worked closely with state Rep. C.B. Robinson and managed two of his re-election campaigns. Influenced by Robinson and by UTC political science professors Dr. Bob Swansbrough and David Brodsky, he chose a career dedicated to community impact. This path led him to roles including assistant city manager of Red Bank, and later, district chief of staff for Congresswoman Marilyn Lloyd, where he cut his teeth helping solve problems for constituent businesses across counties in southeast Tennessee.
His transition into economic development came in 1989 when he went to work for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, followed by time at Partners for Economic Progress, the public-private agency then responsible for economic development in Chattanooga. When PEP merged to form RiverValley Partners in 1994, he continued his recruitment and retention efforts there. In 1998, when Chattanooga’s public economic development functions moved to the Chattanooga Chamber, Hiatt officially became a core part of the team where he would serve with leadership and dedication for many years.
Results That Reshaped a Region
From his early days serving as founding president of the JFK Club, and later as president and officer of the Hamilton County Young Democrats, Hiatt built early experience in community leadership. He has served on the Tennessee Small Business Development Center’s (TSBDC) Advisory Board and the Southeast Tennessee Workforce Development Board, helping shape some of the policies and programs that are still in place today.
Hiatt’s career accomplishments are impressive:
- 46,000+ jobs created over his career
- $10.7 billion+ in investment generated
- Millions in infrastructure and training grants secured for companies
He worked closely with his counterparts at the city and county, playing a key role in the expansions and locations of employers like McKee Foods, Volkswagen, Gestamp and many more companies of every size across our region. He had a hand in recruiting nearly every major employer in Enterprise South and Centre South industrial parks, stepping in along the way to solve problems big and small – from hiring issues to the occasional pothole.
Throughout his time in economic development, Steve formed lifelong friendships with former County Executive Dalton Roberts, County Mayors Claude Ramsey and Jim Coppinger, as well as City Mayors Jon Kinsey and Ron Littlefield. And he has been a fixture at City Council and County Commission meetings for decades, making sure the companies he works with have an advocate in local government chambers.
Said Littlefield, “Steve Hiatt is a thoughtful, reliable and diplomatic advocate for our community. Whenever he was involved in a negotiation, we were comfortable that he would make our case very well with accuracy and conviction.”
Showing Up (Early), Every Time
A longtime member of the Downtown YMCA, Steve is known for his 4 a.m. wake-ups and early workouts, arriving at the Chamber offices hours before all of his colleagues. (And any midafternoon eyelids drooping during a meeting? We didn’t see a thing.)
Retirement plans include chauffeuring granddaughters to school, dance and birthday parties… with some fishing time and good books worked in between carpool shifts. Steve is a proud “PeePaw” to Grace (13), Alexa (13) and Cecilia (8). And while they may not fully understand economic development, they’ve done their best to summarize: “He helps new companies get started, and … other stuff, I guess,” said one granddaughter. But in a way, she’s right; the “other stuff” is where his true contributions lie.
Hiatt has guided and influenced generations of economic development professionals (including me, his daughter!) as well as colleagues like Scott Cooper and many others who follow in his footsteps. He has also served as a mentor to many within the Tennessee Certified Economic Developer (TCED) program, sharing his knowledge with others entering the field, who went on to build up their own communities across the state.
For his leadership, he received the Fred H. Harris Professional of the Year Award from the Tennessee Economic Development Council, which is presented annually for outstanding achievement in economic development and given in recognition of the contributions the recipient has made to his or her own community, as well as to the state of Tennessee.
So please join me in congratulating my dad, who decided it was a good idea to let his 18-year-old daughter answer phones in his office all those years ago. If I end up being even half the economic developer he is, Chattanooga will be better for it.
Thank you, Steve Hiatt, for helping build the city we all love!
