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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – May/June 2016
from coal and that’s shifting as Washington, D.C., the EPA, has
declared a war on coal to pretty much shut it down.
You’ve seen a lot of that coal-fired power switching over to
natural gas right now and at a cheaper cost certainly. How long will
that cheap gas be there? How long will that volume of gas be there
when you start making electricity? Renewable energy is an important
part of our energy pie, if you will, but it’s not the main thing because
if the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, you don’t have
that energy. Until we create a way to store that energy, it’s not going
to be a huge part of our energy pie.
BV:
Who are one or two people who have made the
biggest impact on your career?
Griffin:
So many people have helped me. I’ve tried to learn from
everyone I’ve ever worked with whether they’re doing something
positive or negative – (saying to myself) that’s something maybe I
ought to think about doing or maybe that’s something I shouldn’t do.
I’d have to say my wife, Pamela, has been a tremendous influence
on me. She’s always been positive, always been probably overly
confident about me, more so than I have, about doing things – (saying)
you can do that. That’s very exciting to have – your best friend, your
spouse helping you through this. Then I have to say my mom. She was
an incredibly upbeat person, extremely intelligent, everybody’s friend.
I think I learned a lot from her in a very positive way about how to
react to situations and work with people.
BV:
What have you enjoyed the most about being part
of the Chamber team?
Griffin:
The Chamber’s a family. We have 50 people in that
family – and I joke and say that’s just a few more people than we have
in the Pam and Vince family. But it’s always been a team effort; we’ve
always gone at things in a group way, a family way. I think we’ve got
the best quality government affairs team of any association, any
organization in the state. And that’s been exciting. I think we’ve
always been able to make a difference and produce a quality product.
BV:
What’s next in addition to spending more time with
your family?
Griffin:
That’s Pamela’s biggest worry, that I’m not going to be
challenged enough. We love bicycling. We’ve had the opportunity to
bicycle all over Europe and we have a lot of friends around the country
who have encouraged us, at this point anyway, to come visit and
bicycle with them. I still play racquetball, enjoy playing tournaments,
and that’s a family sport for us too.
Pamela’s training to run her 30th consecutive Mini Marathon. We
ran 25 of them together until my knee surgery. I will be out there on
the course on a bicycle supporting her. Then with all the kids and
grandkids – we have 18 grandkids from ages 1 to 21 –we’ll be going
to lots of sporting events. We do now and we’ll probably do even more.
BV:
Are you going to miss those marble floors at the
Statehouse?
Griffin:
Tom, I’ve done the (bicycle) ride across Indiana three
times and, as I said, run 25 mini marathons, but those marble floors
hurt a heck of a lot more than doing that. It is painful. It’s hard to
believe when you go home at night after being over there for hours –
you’re just exhausted. I won’t miss that. (But) I’ll miss the people and
the associations.
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