Ron J. Corbett, Speaker of the House in the Iowa Legislature and now president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, is the featured speaker for the noon meeting of the Kalona Area Chamber of commerce Monday, June 28 in the downtown Chamber Building.

Corbett will speak about the southeastern Iowa economy and his vision of how the chambers of commerce in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Kalona areas can work together.

Corbett began his new career May 10. During his 13 years in the legislature, Corbett served two years as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. During that time the state went from a $408 million deficit to today’s record surplus of nearly $900 million. Two years later, Corbett became Iowa’s youngest-ever Speaker of the House and is now the longest serving Republican speaker of the house.

A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Corbett moved to Newton in 1973 and graduated from Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, in 1982 with degrees in economics and business. He became a financial planner with Equitable Life for ten years and in 1988 started his own business, Peppy’s Ice Cream.

As special projects manager for CRST, Inc., Corbett was involved in driver recruitment and in finding qualified employees.