The leader of the state’s biggest business-advocacy organization is leaving Kansas to take charge of a similar organization in North Carolina.

Lew Ebert, chief executive officer of the Kansas Chamber, starts Aug. 21 as president and CEO of North Carolina Citizens for Business & Industry. He last day on the job in Topeka is Aug. 11.

Ebert joined the Kansas Chamber in 2003, when the organization was known as the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was looking to boost its profile, add members and more directly influence legislation affecting business.

Today, the Kansas Chamber boasts 10,000 members, takes in more than twice as much revenue as it did before his arrival and has established a number of programs that have stepped up political action.

“He turned everything around,” said Shirley Martin-Smith, who co-chaired the search committee that located Ebert and served as the Kansas Chamber’s chairwoman a year later in 2004. “He came in with a vision of what a real state chamber should be. We needed a focus, and the focus of the Kansas Chamber is business – what is good to make business successful in Kansas.

“He had an ability to communicate a very important message, and he just hit the bull’s-eye.”

Ebert’s intense focus at times put him at odds with many in Lawrence.

In 2004, when the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce testified in support of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ plans for increasing taxes to boost financing for schools, Ebert steadfastly lobbied against any tax increase at all.

Soon, Ebert would be pushing for the repeal of taxes on business machinery and equipment – a step that eventually won approval from the Legislature and was signed by Sebelius.

“It was absolutely the best thing that could be done for business and is the best thing that has been done for business by our Legislature in years, and I think we will see the payoff,” Martin-Smith said. “We’re seeing it now.”

Ebert also ordered improvements for the chamber’s headquarters building, having the foundation mudjacked and its roof replaced. He also brought in a new computer system.

Ebert has family in North Carolina. One of his daughters is a development coordinator for the Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter of the ALS Assn. in Raleigh, N.C.