All boats rise in a high tide. So says Zach Wilcha, the new executive director of Independence Business Alliance, the region’s LGBT chamber of commerce. Wilcha has made it his mission to help the IBA elevate LGBT-run businesses and their allies in the Philadelphia area.
PGN: Interesting name; I only know one other Wilcha. She owns a graphic-design company here in Philadelphia, Lynell Wilcha Design Studio.
ZW: Yup, she’s my dad’s first cousin! Ha. Everyone seems to know Lynell. It’s not a very common last name, so if you meet a Wilcha, there’s a good chance that it’s a relative of mine.
PGN: Cool. I understand you’re from Northeastern Pennsylvania.
ZW: Yes, Lynell and I both grew up in a little town near Scranton called Peckville.
PGN: So did you love “The Office” for putting Scranton on the map?
ZW: I did! I thought “The Office” was a really good show. And the cast was great. They would come to town for conventions and stuff and hang out with everyone. They made Scranton a household name.
PGN: So tell me about growing up in Peckville.
ZW: Peckville was a very small town, one of those places where everybody knows each other. But it’s a great place to grow up. My schoolmates were the same from kindergarten to high school. It’s very athletic-focused but you still have a chance to grow and bloom and enjoy academics too. I worked in the town pharmacy, I was a bank teller for a while and my family owns a funeral parlor there so I really get to know everyone in town. It’s very idyllic with beautiful mountains as a backdrop.
PGN: Did you participate in any sports?
ZW: At the time I was a pretty lazy cross-country runner but now I do marathons and half-marathons.
PGN: [Laughs] I just shared a Facebook post this morning that said something like, “If you ever see me running, you’d better put your shoes on and join me because it means something is chasing me.”
ZW: Ha. I’ve read that post. I really like running. I do it for stress release and so I can eat what I want, which is getting harder as I get older.
PGN: What were the folks like?
ZW: My parents were in education. My dad was an administrator and my mom was the school librarian most of the time when I was growing up. So I usually have about three books I’m reading at any given time. I’ve always had a real focus on education because of them too. And they’ve always been super supportive; I don’t have any horror stories. Even though they divorced when I was young, they did a good job of making sure the kids were still the priority.
PGN: Siblings?
ZW: Yes, I have a brother who is a civil engineer and lives outside of Reading and a sister who lives in Plymouth Meeting and just got her doctorate in physical therapy.
PGN: Since your mother was a librarian, what was a favorite childhood book, and what would you pick for Oprah’s Book Club?
ZW: My favorite books growing up were anything by Beverly Cleary, all the Ramona books and “The Mouse and the Motorcycle.” I read them over and over again. My favorite book of all time is probably “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck. It’s a sprawling family history that I find fascinating. But if I had to press a book into people’s hands now, it would be … gosh, it changes every day. I’d say “The Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan, about the march of time and how it swallows us all.
PGN: Light reading!
ZW: [Laughs] Yes, but it actually is very funny and thought-provoking. It’s one of those books that really gets to you the more you read it.
PGN: You’ve mentioned history and time a lot. Do you have a birthday coming up?
ZW: No. But I did just turn 38 in November.
PGN: Which makes you a …
ZW: Sagittarius. I’m very much like one too.
PGN: What are Sagittarius traits?
ZW: Let’s see … [Laughs] I’m pretty blunt but like to think I’m charming enough to get away with it. And I love to travel, which is typical for the sign. Otherwise, I’m told that Sagittarius people are the life of the party. I don’t know about that; I can hold my own at a party but mostly I’m quiet and observant.
PGN: Since you love to travel, what’s the farthest you’ve gone?
ZW: I went on a great trip through Asia with one of my friends. We traveled to Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok and an island in Thailand. It was just the best trip and life-changing in many ways. It really altered my perspective on a lot of different things. It even made me think differently about my career when I got back: how life is short and that I might want to think about some changes when I returned, which I did.
PGN: What about traveling prompted those thoughts and changes?
ZW: I guess it made things that I thought were impossible, possible. I’d always loved geography as a kid and would read about faraway places, and to actually end up there bridged a gap for me and showed me what was possible. Also, getting the chance to see how other people and cultures live sheds a light on what you’re doing in your own life. It creates the option for excitement and possibility. When you witness other people’s complete fulfillment, it’s hard to come back and not find it in your own life. Traveling always makes me happy!
PGN: Something surprising from your travels?
ZW: I think that the trip to Asia and all of my travels have made me realize how lucky I am to be able to see and witness other places. I realize that I’m traveling from a position of privilege and one thing that I appreciated from my trip to Asia was that I was completely out of my comfort zone. They have different alphabets, and something as simple as that can shift your paradigm. You realize that you are a complete outsider and if you need help, you have to figure out creative ways to reach out. Not having literacy on your side is eye-opening.
PGN: When I was in Seoul there were so few Westerners, I felt like a rock star because people stopped me in the street to take pictures.
ZW: Yes, in Hong Kong everywhere I went people wanted to look at my blue eyes. Of course, in the cities most of the people spoke some English but it was a weird mix of the past, with the history and also centuries-old poverty contrasted with a really futuristic city. The architecture and the technology are on a different level there. There’s a big separation between present and past that’s interesting.
PGN: What was your biggest travel mishap?
ZW: I lost my passport in Morocco. I recovered it, but it was nail-biting for a moment.
PGN: You’ve done a number of different jobs. What was the oddest moment on the job?
ZW: When I was working for Habitat for Humanity, I did a lot of work with communities of faith. There was one time when I found myself at a piano with several Mormons singing hymns … something I never imagined doing when I was in law school. But looking back, I never realized how odd it was having grown up working in a funeral parlor. Being put to work moving bodies and arranging flowers. [Laughs] It wasn’t until I went to college that people informed me that that wasn’t normal!
PGN: I feel you! I grew up next to a funeral home and we’d play hide and seek where they stored the caskets.
ZW: Totally, we did too. And we loved to lay down in the back of the hearse and sit up at stoplights just to freak people out. It might be a little morbid looking back, but I wouldn’t have chosen any other way to grow up. It was really fun.
PGN: Any lasting effects?
ZW: I think it affected our sense of humor. Everyone in my family is funny but we’re not given to laughing out loud. Growing up in a funeral-home setting, you learned to be stoic; you had to keep it together and be strong for other people. We may have a lot going on inside but we’re not overtly emotional, which comes from an upbringing on the funeral circuit.
PGN: Wait, I just remembered that your parents were educators.
ZW: Yes, it was the family business: my grandparents owned it and lived upstairs. Now my uncle and cousins run it and I visit whenever I go home.
PGN: Back to your various jobs …
ZW: Yes, after I graduated from law school I clerked for a judge in the Court of Common Pleas for a year and then worked in a law firm for a few years. I left there to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up that would allow me to use my JD but not necessarily involve practicing law. I just never found my niche in legal practice.
PGN: What’s a JD?
ZW: Juris doctorate, a law degree. I found that a lot of people with law degrees seemed to land in fundraising and development as a way to use your skills as an advocate, to make a case for something that’s positive. I was lucky enough to land at Habitat for Humanity. It was a fascinating job and the polar opposite of what I’d been doing. At the law firm, you were a desk jockey and didn’t come up for air all day long, but at Habitat I was able to go out and talk to people. I realize now that I’m the kind of person who needs some human interaction! Which brought me to the job at IBA. It’s a great combination of my business background and the relationship-management skills. It’s an organization I really believe in.
PGN: What was a moving moment at Habitat?
ZW: One of the things about the organization that most people don’t know is that we do repairs. In a city like Philadelphia with so many old homes, it’s really needed. I really enjoyed helping people fix problems so that they could stay in their homes. Us being there was often the difference between them being able to stay or be on the street. I’ll never forget one family and the difference before and after they got their own home. They were just so full of life and joy when they moved in. It was an honor to work somewhere where we were tangibly changing people’s lives almost every day.
PGN: Now to the IBA … Why do we need a gay chamber of commerce?
ZW: We need it for several reasons, one is that it helps drive business to the LGBT community. Even with all the strides we’ve made, it’s still not a given that everybody has the same opportunity to start up a business or attract the kind of customers that you might see in other businesses or even that everybody has the same opportunity to be out at work. A gay chamber of commerce means that you have a lot of support from within the community and also a voice to say, This is who we are and you should support us.
PGN: Tell me about the IBA. I think some people may think it’s only for big corporations, but you have everyone from silkscreen artists and plumbers to Comcast and Loews.
ZW: Yes, our mission statement is that we provide opportunities, access and resources to LGBT professionals and allies in the Greater Philadelphia area. We promote economic development, growth, diversity and leadership in our region. As you said, the companies within the chamber are pretty diverse; the majority of our members are small businesses and entrepreneurs with under 25 employees, some of them solo shops with one person plugging away. We love that everyone can come together and help each other out. And in the New Year, we’re making even more of an effort to diversify. We want to make sure all of the letters in “LGBTQI” are represented. We’ve also been reaching out to African-American groups, Asian organizations, women’s groups. We want to look more like the vibrant rainbow that the community in Philadelphia looks like.
PGN: How important do you think it is for a business to identify as LGBT or LGBT-friendly?
ZW: I think it’s extremely important, especially in a city like Philadelphia, which is very gay-friendly. It’s an asset to let people know that their pink dollars are welcomed. There’s a perception that there’s more of a disposable income in the LGBT community, which is not always the case, but it still behooves companies to appeal to LGBT customers. And of course, it’s always a good idea to be out if you can be. I know that it’s not always an option for everyone, particularly in our trans community where it can be very difficult being out at their own place of business. My hope is that we can help create a safe space for everyone to be out and living their best life as their authentic selves.
PGN: What are some of the events coming up?
ZW: We have a ConnX networking event each month and there’s one coming up Jan. 26 at Fogo de Chao. There’s a Legally Speaking business workshop coming up Jan. 21. In February, we’ll have another ConnX event as well as a welcoming event for new members, and in honor of Women’s History Month we’re having a Women in Business panel in March. May is our biggest event each year, our Business Leaders luncheon, which is always popular.
PGN: Last time you were in a hospital?
ZW: When I sprained my foot while running. I have to brag that three weeks later (and defying doctor’s orders) I ran a half-marathon running on the heel of my injured foot. [Laughs] I don’t take well to being told I can’t do something.
PGN: Best thing you ever won?
ZW: This job. Throughout the interview process, it was exciting as I kept advancing towards something so perfect for me. I’ve always wanted to work in an LGBT space and now I am. It was a dream come true.
For more information about Independence Business Alliance, visit www.thinkiba.com.
To suggest a community member for Family Portrait, email [email protected].