Mixing it up.

Arizona Chamber president adds spice to new role

Jim Apperson walks into his office after lunch and tries to hang his gray suit jacket behind the door when he realizes there isn't a hook. He had one in his old office, he says, slinging it over his chair.

He looks out at the perfect day and laments being inside. He excuses himself to get a Diet Dr. Pepper, comes back and sits down, stretching his arms out like airplane wings to mentally prepare and says, "So where did you have lunch today?"

Apperson is looking for places to eat since moving back from Washington, D.C., to become president and chief executive, of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. His office still is undone. The dinged-up wooden desk has an in-box that's partially assembled and half the white shelves lining one side are bare except for a photo of "his daughter Megan; a freshman at the University of Puget Sound in …