Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia names new CEO

Rochelle “Chellie” Cameron is excited to be taking on the role as president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

Cameron takes the helm of the chamber on July 11. The current CEO of Philadelphia International Airport and Northeast Philadelphia Airport was selected following a national search.

Cameron has been a member of the airport’s leadership team since 2011. From December 2014 until her appointment as CEO in January 2016, she served as chief operating officer and was responsible for overseeing all day-to-day operations.

“I’ve grown to love this city and the region,” Cameron said during a Tribune interview. “To be able to take some of my experience and talents and be able to help the business community in Philadelphia and continue to grow the region just in a bit of different way was something that makes it so exciting and meaningful.”

While she’s been approached by other airports about taking on their CEO position, Cameron wanted to stay in Philly.

“So when this opportunity popped up I thought here’s a way that I can do some of the things that I learned how to do in aviation,” Cameron said.

“I think the chamber deserves a strong leader. I think the chamber deserves someone who understands how important it is to take care of its members.”

“There are about 800 people who work for me at the airport, but there are about 21,000 people who actually work on the campus,” she continued. “So when you think about how you make things happen when you don’t control a lot but you have to bring all those different stakeholders together to make sure that things run the way that they are supposed to, I think there are a lot of similarities with the chamber job.”

Cameron began her tenure at PHL when she was named deputy director of aviation, finance and administration in June 2011.

Previously, she spent 13 years with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) and served for seven years as an active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force and one year as an Air Force civilian employee.

Since assuming the role of CEO of PHL in 2016, Cameron has led the airport in expanding pre-pandemic passenger traffic to record-breaking numbers; attracting new carriers, routes and destinations to Philadelphia; and overseeing the transport of millions of tons of precious cargo.

Cameron initiated PHL’s $1.8 billion Cargo Expansion Strategy, which will nearly triple its air cargo facility footprint and establish Philadelphia as a logistics center, driving the creation of thousands of new jobs.

The chamber’s search committee prioritized diversity throughout the search process for a new leader.

The search mapped more than 700 Greater Philadelphia region nonprofit CEOs and executives to identify diverse leadership; research identified nearly 300 national, regional and local potential diverse candidates; and more than 200 were contacted. After evaluating eight final diverse candidates the search committee unanimously agreed that Cameron was the right person to serve as the chamber’s next CEO.

“We sought a visionary leader capable of anticipating and addressing significant challenges and opportunities,” search committee Co-Chair Mike Innocenzo said in a news release.

“Chellie has clearly demonstrated those abilities by expanding carriers and service for passengers, leading the airport through a pandemic-induced economic downturn and embarking on (a) cargo expansion project that will have a massive economic impact on the region and position PHL as one of the most competitive cargo airports on the East Coast.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chamber collaborated with 160 business and civic leaders to launch the Philadelphia Regional Recharge and Recovery Task Force.

Susan Jacobson, chair of the chamber board and co-chair of the search committee, said Cameron is “a strategic, big-picture thinker” with deep experience advocating for business on the local, state and federal levels.

“Chellie is a proven leader with experience convening a diverse set of stakeholders to advance a common goal,” Jacobson said. “As CEO she leveraged the airport’s size and economic platform to operationalize many of the tenets of Recharge and Recover. She is committed to evolving the program to meet the needs of our region and our membership into the future.”

Cameron said that engaging with chamber members is among her top priorities.

“My first priority would be to engage with as many of members as possible to make sure that we are doing the things that they want us to do and most importantly to make sure that we’re adding value — that they get a lot of value for their membership,” she said.

Cameron is taking on building the momentum of the Recharge and Recover program as her second priority.

“I want to build on the momentum of that program and really kind of take it to where it is not just looking at how we make our way through the pandemic but how we look into the future a few years out,” she said. “I think that we have to start looking further down the road to make sure that we are growing the business community and its impact on Philadelphia.”

One of the Recharge and Recovery focuses is on helping Philadelphia become a place known for helping Black- and brown-owned businesses grow.

“I think that the chamber with its Recharge and Recovery initiative really started to recognize and take on more transformational issues for the city and the region,” Cameron said. “So the recognition of all the work that needs to be done to help Black- and brown-owned businesses grow — that’s the stuff that you wouldn’t have seen the chamber doing before, not in this big way.”

“So I love that the chamber is taking that on and I can’t wait to take it to the next level,” she continued. “I think that is really important for the business community and for those businesses and for all of us to continue to prosper and thrive.”