Former CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg’s lasting impact on California policies and politics was acknowledged this week when he was named in memoriam to the Capitol Weekly Top 100 Hall of Fame.
Zaremberg, who passed away in 2023, took over CalChamber’s top leadership post in 1998 and retired at the end of 2021. While heading CalChamber, he was “the de facto face of business for the state of California,” said Capitol Weekly, an online publication focused on California government and politics.
Capitol Weekly began its lists of “Top 100” nonelected policy influencers in 2009 and Zaremberg appeared on all 13 lists until he retired.
This year, Capitol Weekly editors said Zaremberg “epitomizes the kind of Capitol titans we seek to enshrine” in the Hall of Fame.
They described Zaremberg as “the rare Sacramento power player with a steadfast allegiance to the GOP,” but also pointed out that “as the leader of California’s business interests, he developed a reputation as a pragmatist who was willing to work across the aisle.”
Zaremberg was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He was an Air Force captain and flight navigator on a KC-135 jet air refueling tanker from 1970 to 1975.
After graduating with a law degree from the McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific in 1978, he went to work for then-Attorney General George Deukmejian. He followed Deukmejian to the governor’s office, then stayed on to work for Deukmejian’s successor, Pete Wilson.
Zaremberg moved on to the private sector, serving as executive vice president and head of CalChamber’s legislative advocacy program for six years before stepping up to CalChamber’s top spot in 1998.
In this role, Capitol Weekly said, he gained a reputation as “an expert of spin, with the Chamber’s labeling of bills it disliked as ‘Job Killers.’”
When Zaremberg retired, the governors with whom he had worked — Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, and Gavin Newsom — paid tribute to his leadership and dedication to strengthening the California economy.
Others praising Zaremberg included Lucas Public Affairs CEO Donna Lucas, current chair of the CalChamber Board of Directors, and an inaugural member of the Capitol Weekly Top 100 Hall of Fame. She called his work “legendary.”
