A message from the Chamber’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Chellie Cameron, to our regional business community as we work together to achieve our Chamber 2028 vision.

Dear Chamber Community,

As we close the books on our fiscal year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the progress we’ve made—and the momentum we’re building together.

This past year, you’ve seen your Chamber at work in new and exciting ways. We are living out our promise to be bold and tackle the complex challenges facing our region, and we’re seeing some early successes that give us confidence, including:

  • Our region skyrocketed to #13 in Global Startup Ecosystem in the newly released 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome. Life sciences, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing sector work in our region is driving that, but it represents something simple: our region is rising, and these growing sectors have the potential to create more jobs, more opportunity, and a brighter future.
  • We saw a measurable increase in leads and relocates in our business attraction work through Select Greater Philadelphia. As we work to bring new companies and more jobs to our region, we’ll continue to advocate in Harrisburg and Philadelphia City Hall to make our region a more attractive and competitive place to grow a business.
  • We launched our Stay for Philly talent attraction campaign, built in partnership with Visit Philadelphia, which builds on their excellent tourism campaign to remind visitors why they should become locals. As someone who moved to Philadelphia 14 years ago for my career – this campaign is close to my heart. As we work to create more jobs in the region, we need to attract the right talent to fill them.
  • We led a push for Pennsylvania transportation funding as Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) faces a $213 million budget deficit that threatens to derail our regional economy. We’ve rallied our business community to get the attention of lawmakers in Harrisburg, amassing thousands of signatures to urge elected officials to identify a sustainable funding source and avoid devastating service cuts.
  • Importantly, we also announced Christopher Franklin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Essential Utilities, as our new Chair-Elect and the first CEO of a suburban-based company to chair our board in over 20 years. With his appointment, we’re building on the progress made by our current chair Gregory Deavens, President and Chief Executive Officer of Independence Health Group, and acknowledging that cooperation is critical to achieving regional priorities in 2026.

We’re less than a year away from welcoming the world in 2026. We want to showcase the best of our city and region – our culture, our thriving business community, and the people who make Greater Philadelphia great. But more than that, we want to look to the future and use this tremendous opportunity to make life even better for residents on January 1, 2027, when all the celebrations of 2026 have come to a close.

You may have seen the recent Southeastern Pennsylvania market assessment for growing opportunity industries and economic mobility from the Brookings Institution, which outlines growth opportunities for our region. We’ll be supporting that effort, and in the year ahead, our work will continue to focus on upward economic mobility and creating more high-quality jobs for residents of our city and region.

I look forward to our continued collaboration in the year ahead, and I invite you to register for our Annual Meeting, where we will celebrate these accomplishments and much more.

In Service,

Chellie

Chellie Cameron
President and Chief Executive Officer,
The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia