Chamber promotes Amway chief exec in directors’ election

Amway is a direct-sales company based in Michigan, co-founded by Van Andel’s father, Jay, in 1959. Alticor, its parent company, contracts with distributors who sell mainly dietary supplements, jewelry, cosmetics, electronics, water purifiers and other home products.

About 90 percent of the company’s $11.8 billion in revenue last year came from outside the U.S., with a large concentration in Asian countries – China, India, Japan and Korea, among others.

{mosads}“Steve embodies the free enterprise system that the Chamber works so hard to advance and protect,” said Thomas J. Donohue, the Chamber’s president and chief executive, in a statement. “Steve has proven himself to be a tireless leader on global trade, competitiveness, and many issues of interest to the business community.”

The Chamber of Commerce spent more than $10.1 million in federal lobbying efforts in the first three months of this year alone, a decrease of about half over the same period in 2012. In all, the group spent almost $104 million in lobbying efforts last year, according to Lobbying Disclosure Act reports.

The business lobby group on Wednesday also elected Tamara L. Lundgren, the president and chief executive of Schnitzer Steel Industries to take over Van Andel’s spot as vice chair on the board.

Schnitzer collects, processes and recycles scrap metal and manufactures it into rebar, wire rods and other usable products.

From the time Lundgren started as the company’s chief strategy officer in 2005 and assumed her role as CEO in 2008, the Schnitzer’s revenue tripled, the Chamber says, and expanded its facilities outside the West Coast.

“She has been making important contributions to the Chamber for more than ten years,” Donohue said, “and we’re grateful for the opportunity to continue to work with her.”

She originally joined the Chamber’s board of directors in 2010, serving in its Center for Women in Business, a group aimed to encourage female executives in the corporate world.