The Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce honors Barbara Bruderlin for 10 years of dedicated service, advocacy, and community impact
Accolades were bestowed on Barbara Bruderlin, lauding her aptitude, courage, and visionary leadership after she announced her resignation as chief executive officer of the Malibu Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce. Many of the complimentary comments honoring her almost 10 years of service and her legacy were imbued with adjectives such as “irreplaceable” and “visionary.”
“What a loss for the community and chamber!” Denise Kniter of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s office gushed. “You’ve done so much for the Palisades!”
Indeed, at a luncheon honoring Bruderlin’s service to both Pacific Palisades and Malibu, the mayor’s office convinced Bruderlin to agree to help those on the Chamber Board to host a commercial landowner listening session that Bruderlin was spearheading because that important business community constituency has not been given voice in a public forum since the Palisades Fire.
Upon receiving Bruderlin’s notice of resignation, the Chamber issued a statement praising her and saying that she led the Chamber and its member businesses through numerous crises during her nearly 10-year term as CEO, navigating the Woolsey Fire, the COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, the Franklin and Palisades fires that devastated the local economies of both communities. The statement read “Barbara served as a beacon of hope for small business owners looking for a friendly ear, a trusted friend of local officials and a voice for the communities she served.”
“We are grateful for Barbara’s unwavering commitment to our beautiful coastal communities,” said Ramis Sadrieh, chair of the PaliBu Chamber. “She’s led our Chamber with grace, and we appreciate her efforts.”
A decade of impressively productive service
Since Bruderlin started serving as CEO of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce almost a decade ago, she has led the Chamber’s support of its members and the greater community in response to the Woolsey Fire, the global pandemic, the Broad, Franklin, and Palisades fires, and mudslides.
The Malibu Times sat down with Bruderlin so readers can get an overview of her service and the Chamber’s in Malibu as well as the Pacific Palisades.
When asked about the skill set and professional experience she brought to the Chamber of Commerce CEO position, Bruderlin shared, “From songwriting to acting, to creating a major at UCLA and working as a therapist in psychiatric hospitals, to helping my brother, Brian Bruderlin, launch Paramount Recording Studios, I have done a variety of things throughout my career,” Bruderlin said. “At Humana Corporate, I assisted three directors who oversaw 13 hospitals and five insurance branches, and I also was a construction coordinator on Barbara Streisand’s 1790 Barnhouse Reproduction — after all those varied experiences, somehow running the Chamber of Commerce seemed like a natural next step!”
Bruderlin candidly noted that “You need to be ready for anything when you run a chamber. There is a never ending stream of curious, ambitious business owners, all filled with grand ideas and enthusiasm. Ideas take flight and spinning those into reality is a specialty of a chamber and helping to empower a business to flourish is a dream come true!”
Helping nascent businesses find their audience in a community is but one small role played by a Chamber of Commerce. “Chambers also work with nonprofit organizations, advocate for legislative bills and programs that support small businesses, and work with the heads of wonderful major companies, mayors, assemblymembers, county supervisors, and even the governor,” Bruderlin explained. “I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as a liaison between our businesses and all of those people and entities and I note that the Chamber’s sponsoring the annual State of the City in Malibu provides an opportunity for our members and elected local and regional leaders to interface.”
Importantly, Bruderlin noted that “Chamber leaders need to be ready to pivot. You need to help new businesses find their strength, find free business programs, education, and help them celebrate their launch and successes.”
Leading the Chamber during times of troubles and disasters meant “serving as a watchful eye and helping businesses to navigate the aftermath of disasters, which we’ve seen more than our fair share of over the last eight years,” Bruderlin commented. “It meant the Chamber helping businesses and the greater community through COVID by constantly changing updates about regulations relating to protocols during the pandemic.” Those tireless efforts earned Bruderlin a commendation from the City of Malibu in 2021.
Discussing the various initiatives that she spearheaded, Bruderlin highlights putting on a massive three-day Art Festival throughout Cross Creek in 2017, an undertaking that she said taught her “that anything is possible if you just dig in and have faith!” That realization proved so crucial in her ability to encourage and uplift others, she noted. The festival was soon followed by the launch of the Chamber’s Women’s Leadership Awards, when the organization celebrated the heroes following the Woolsey Fire.
After the pandemic, the Palisades Chamber approached Bruderlin to discuss merging the Malibu and Pacific Palisades Chambers.
“Though Malibu and Palisades are so different, we share residents who are old-fashioned and family-centric.” Bruderlin observed. “We share the largest urban park in the world — with 150,000 acres and a 67- mile backbone trail. Together, our two communities have vineyards reminiscent of Tuscany in Malibu’s wine country and polo fields in the Palisades.”
Bruderlin emphasized, “The California Attorney General is currently reviewing our final papers to make the merger official.”
Bruderlin also reflected on the impact of recent disasters on the business community. “After the Woolsey Fire, the City of Malibu called and asked if the chamber would take over creating a list of rebuild professionals, and vet them,” she explained. “Subsequently the chamber hosted monthly Rebuild Malibu Mixer/EXPOs for a year — those were events where home rebuilders could go to Dukes Malibu and share dinner with a large group of rebuild professionals and get to know them. And once again the Chamber’s upcoming Rebuild EXPO will be hosting for the Palisades Fire home rebuilders.”
Bruderlin noted that after wildfires and other disasters, the Chamber plays a unique role in helping struggling businesses obtain grants, funding that often literally makes the difference between a small business surviving or closing.
“The small businesses that suffered business interruption from the fires, and the closure of Pacific Coast Highway, Sunset, and Topanga Boulevard really suffered from lack of businesses and it was six months before they received any grants,” Bruderlin explained. “That inspired me to begin the PaliBu Rise and Thrive Business Fund, with fiscal sponsor Creative Visions. We successfully raised $325,000 for that fund from Goldman Sachs, FireAid, The Annenberg Foundation, and So Cal Gas. Also, the California Community Foundation generously sponsored the Chamber so that we could continue our mission to support small businesses. My dream is that in the future if, God forbid, anything happens, we now have this nonprofit foundation in place to be able to immediately accept donations and get them to our local businesses.”
The Rise and Thrive Fund is only a small part of Bruderlin’s legacy at the Chamber. Those wishing her well shared various insights, with local businessperson Meris Gebhardt stating, “You are truly one of the most incredible and brave humans I know, holding all of us during crisis and celebration alike. I’m a better person because of you.” Kate Kimmel of the Topanga Farmers Market encapsulated the sentiment of many expressing appreciation for Bruderlin’s support, stating, “I am especially grateful for the way you introduced me to valuable connections and encouraged me to promote more bolding on social media — it made a real difference. The Malibu and Palisades business community was lucky to have your advocacy and leadership for so many years.”