C12 Business Forums wants to expand its faith-based organization to the Tri-Cities to provide peer advisory groups and learning opportunities for CEOs, business owners and key decision makers.

“Our tagline is, ‘We build great businesses for a greater purpose,’” said Inland Northwest Chairman Tom Walther, who started the chapter in 2020.

Prior to that, Walther ran two separate companies in wholesale and engineering for over 21 years before shifting career paths to C12.

“Being in a room with likeminded people can be very powerful,” he said.

The Inland Northwest chapter, which has 19 members from 13 different companies, meets once a month in Spokane. Membership includes 12 presidents, or CEOs, and seven so-called key players. Key players those who are in executive leadership and senior managers at C12 member companies.

“We create a group for them to help that leadership team to understand what the boss is going through,” Walther said. 

With the 13 companies combined, these leaders employ more than 2,000 people and account for over $100 million of regional economic impact annually. Walther said having a faith-based leader in business can carry an impact without involving religious practices.

“This organization is for business leaders interested in putting faith into practice in their organization in the sense of how you really care for people and live out your faith in the work you are doing,” he said. “That spills into the community when you think about the sphere of influence a company and its leaders have.” 

C12 recently boasted a global membership reach of 4,000 members from more than 2,800 companies, an 80% growth over the past five years. Regionally, plans to extend its reach are underway.

Walther’s plans to grow the Inland Northwest chapter include creating more chairs in other regions, including the Tri-Cities, Yakima, Wenatchee, Walla Walla, Moscow and Lewiston. This strategy would eliminate travel to Spokane for those interested in becoming members or even becoming a chair.

“I’m just in a sense getting started,” he said, “so my goal is to expand with more chairs to make this more easily available to members.”

Annual membership is $1,350 for CEOs and $675 for key players.

“There is a cost to it,” Walther said, “but I had one member tell me that due to our council on a business decision, we saved him $350,000. We are looking for members that would benefit from our services.”

Contact Walter at [email protected].

Go to: joinc12.com.