I am honored to serve as Chairman of the Chamber Board in 2024.

I have lived and worked in Overland Park for decades. I raised my family here and have spent most of my professional career in Overland Park – currently leading sales at C2F0. I have always had challenging roles responsible for sales/revenue generating at Sprint (now T-Mobile) for 24 years and Dex Media (now Thryv) for 10 years.

So, why would I want to “Chamber” on top of that for the last decade? I love being involved in what is happening in the community. The relationships and people I have met are outstanding – it’s a great way to get to know other community leaders. Really understanding our connection to local, state and federal governments and the issues has also been essential.

• Some things to look forward to this year:
  It’s the second full year of implementation of Opportunity NOW, our strategic plan for community and economic development. This means we will:
• Super charge support for small businesses and entrepreneurs that make our community unique and critical to our economy. We’ll:
  • Deploy our Small Business Council under the leadership of Neelima Parasker of SnapIT Solutions to engage small businesses of all types to determine what’s needed to optimize success. We’ll also:
• Graduate our second cohort of second-stage businesses from the GAME program at Johnson County Community College’s Small Business Development Center, where they learn how to take their businesses to the next level.
• Announce the results of a workforce study that pinpoints strengths and gaps in our talent pipeline. It will give us a solid roadmap of recommendations to attract, retain and align talent to accomplish your work.
• Amp up marketing of Overland Park as the location for business and top talent. Using comprehensive data, we’ll invest in target industry sectors and the workers you need to be successful.
• Unveil dashboards on opchamber.org to provide small business resources, new economic data, and tools to help with talent recruitment and retention. Just as we curated the best resources for you during Covid, we will be your trusted resource for information.

In yet another election season, you can turn to VoteJoCo.com and know our team is unbiased, non-political and fair in representation of all candidates. That contributes to the high participation rate of candidates of all parties in surveys and forums, which allows you to learn as much as possible about the candidates. Know that you can share votejoco as a trusted website with your employees and friends without bias.

I’m especially excited about a new project of the Chamber Foundation this year: The National Civics Bee. We’re sponsoring this project because we believe an understanding of civics is foundational to our democracy and our ability to conduct our business in a civil society. Engaging middle schoolers and their parents is a perfect place to start. January 8 is the deadline for entries.

I am proud to be associated with, involved, and assisting in the leadership of this organization. We’re working every day to ensure that Overland Park and our region are the best places for business investment and quality of life.