As the leader of the California Chamber of Commerce, Allan Zaremberg was the dean of the state’s business community and guided the policies that affected one of the largest economies in the world for more than two decades.
“You have to be able to help the people who can’t help themselves, but that means opportunities,” Zaremberg said. Facing the likelihood of being drafted, Zaremberg joined the Air Force in 1970 in his early 20s. He went to officer school and became a captain and flight navigator, refueling spy planes in a KC-135 jet air tanker in Vietnam.
“When you have crisis, you learn how to manage it,” he said. “And if somebody’s life or airplanes hang in the balance, you do your job and you get it done and that’s what you do. Standing up in front of a group of people, which might have been hard at one time, suddenly became a lot easier.” Despite his understated and low-key style, Cassandra Pye said Zaremberg earned the trust of the leaders of major companies headquartered in California when she served as his political director in the 1990s and early 2000s. Zaremberg was the chamber’s executive vice president and head of legislative advocacy for six years before becoming CEO.
Asked before his retirement whether he would endorse the legislation again if he got a do-over, he stood by the chamber’s decision. “There are days when I’m riding on the roads and I wonder what the hell they’re doing with the money,” he joked. Zaremberg allowed her to work from home during the summers to raise her sons, who still associate him with the pizzas he made from scratch for friends at his home in Loomis. She called him a food snob, who always wanted to share plates at restaurants.“He made the strategist I am today by asking me to prove my case with facts, by asking the right questions, considering all the potential outcomes and, most importantly, doing the right thing,” she said.
Sloat agreed with others who said that Zaremberg negotiated in good faith with the goal of reaching a compromise, but wasn’t afraid to launch ballot measure fights. Even when those battles became expensive and contentious, he didn’t hold any animus.