BIOGRAPHY
Phillip L. Parker | President
Business owner, Phil Parker, developed a strong work ethic working part-time since age 7. He has been successful since the age of 18 working full-time while completing both an undergraduate degree and an MBA and providing leadership to a number of other organizations. He has had leadership experience in retail, insurance, and association management. He has also provided leadership to numerous and various not-for-profit organizations as a director or top volunteer leader.
PHILLIP L. PARKER
CAE (ret.), CCE
Phillip L. Parker, CAE (ret.), CCE is the former President and CEO of the regional Dayton (OH) Area Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber's Educational Improvement Foundation. Before joining the chamber organization, Phil was the Executive Director of the Home Builders Association of Dayton and the Miami Valley. During his professional career, he has obtained an extensive background in working with trade associations and businesses of all sizes in the Miami Valley region as a champion for our free enterprise system. Prior to his association leadership, Parker was a partner in the insurance firm, Hiatt Agency, where as national sales manager the company grew exponentially during his tenure to the 37th fastest growing privately held company in America.
Phil received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Florida Atlantic University and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Dayton. He holds the professional designation of Certified Association Executive (CAE) from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and Certified Chamber Executive (CCE) from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). He graduated in 1997 from the United States Chamber's Institutes for Organization Management and the Center for Creative Leadership in 2000. Professionally, he is an active member of ASAE, and is a past President of the Dayton Society of ASAE. Phil is a past member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Ohio (CCEO) where he served as its State President in 2001-'02, national ACCE Board Treasurer, and a past member of the U.S Department of Commerce Southern Ohio District Export Council (SODEC). He was named a Ford Foundation Fellow in 2009. For his industry leadership, Parker was named a Life Member by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) in 2022.
As the recently retired President of the 116-year-old Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, Phil for over 27 years oversaw one of the 25 largest and most prestigious Chambers of Commerce in the nation. The Chamber, with its volunteer member leadership, is a business-focused organization dedicated to regional economic development, business advocacy, and diversified member services. Over the last 20 years, this metropolitan business organization has exceeded the requirements for national accreditation with its highest honor of 5 stars by the United States Chamber of Commerce and has additionally been honored for its entrepreneurial spirit by The Newcomen Society of the United States, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Supporter of the Year Award and the Better Business Bureau's Integrity Eclipse Award. The Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives also honored the Chamber in 1998-'99 as the "Nation's Best Chamber of Commerce".
Phil has been actively involved as a local, regional, state, and national volunteer leader, averaging more than 500 volunteer service hours a year for over 49 years. Parker was the President of the Greater Dayton Jaycees in 1981-'82 and President of The Presidents Club of Dayton in 1987-'88 and Co-chair of its Citizen Legion of Honor Award from 1992 - 1994 and 1999 - 2022. He has also served in numerous other volunteer leadership positions including the Board of Trustees of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce; alumni advisor to Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity at the University of Dayton; as a Board member he guided an $18 million dollar community campaign, the second largest in their history, as Campaign Chair of the region's United Way; Board Chair of the 9-county American Red Cross - Dayton Chapter; a graduate of Leadership Dayton and Leadership Ohio; and is an active member of three of Dayton's local Masonic bodies and Masonic Foundation Board.
Additionally, Phil served as a trustee and was the founding President of the Beavercreek Community Fund Foundation; board member of the Beavercreek Chamber of Commerce; co-founder of the Beavercreek High School Varsity Hockey program; a past chair of the City of Beavercreek Parks and Recreation Board, on the Board of Inventing Flight (2003) and is a member of the Dayton Rotary Club. Phil currently serves on the Boards of Greene Memorial Hospital, Soin Medical Center, Kettering College; and several other local boards and community committees. Parker was the founding Board chair of Antioch University Midwest from 2008 - 2013. Parker was also the co-chair and co-founder of the Miami Valley READS program. Active in national defense issues, Phil participated in the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Civilian Orientation Conference 62 (JCOC) and the U.S. Air Force's National Security Forum. He was also an active business advisor with 5 of the area's higher education institutions. He served on the National Board of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity from 2002 - 2010 and has continued his volunteer service with that organization for over 52 years.
Among his personal accomplishments and awards, Phil was named Outstanding Jaycee in Ohio in 1979 and one of the top 10 Jaycees in America that same year. He was named in the 1980, 1982, and 1983 editions of Outstanding Young Men in America. In 1983 he was named as one of the Five Outstanding Young Men in Ohio. In 1990, Phil received the Dayton "Up and Comers" Award. Phil also received the David G. Lloyd Memorial Award in 1992 as one of the Outstanding Local Executive Officers of the National Association of Home Builders and was named Professional of the Year in Ohio in 1997 by his Ohio Chamber of Commerce contemporaries. Phil received the regional United Way's first Smith-Moore Human Services Award and was awarded the 33rd degree, Freemason's Scottish Rite's highest honor, in 2004. Additionally, he received the region's 2007 Grimmy Award for his leadership in community literacy. In 2010, the area Red Cross named him its E. J. McHugh Board Member of the Year. In 2013 he received the Wick Wright Award from the National Aviation Heritage Alliance in support of aviation and the Air Force Association's Wright Memorial Chapter Ambassador of the Year in 2015. In 2016 he was named the Dayton region's top volunteer with The Presidents Club of Dayton's Citizen Legion of Honor Award. In 2018 he was named to the Dayton Business Hall of Fame and in 2020 was named the region's Congressman Dave Hobson Dayton Region Advocate Award recipient by the Dayton Development Coalition. Parker, active in Department of Defense programs, actively supported the Dayton (Peace) Accords in 1995 and afterwards, lead community support missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) and Croatia (Zagreb) in 1996 and later Kosovo, Israel, China, Japan, and Cuba. In 2024, his alma mater Florida Atlantic University, named him to the university's Alumni Hall of Fame.
Parker has served on over 50 different boards during his volunteer work as a servant leader, focusing on organizational leadership and governance. He has published more than 200 public articles concerning community leadership, economic and community development, and public policy. Over the years in the Dayton region, Parker has been named numerous times as one of the region's "Most Influential Leaders".
Phil and his wife Donna, who have 2 children Natasha (Mark) and Matthew (Meagan), and 4 grandchildren Chloe, Kennedy, Violet, and Jameson; live in Beavercreek, Ohio where their grandchildren are sixth-generation Beavercreek residents. Donna is a retired teacher in the Beavercreek City School's system and an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton. Phil is a lifelong outdoorsman who is an active fisherman, hunter, enjoys restoring muscle cars, old motorcycles, and enjoys oldies rock & roll music. He is an active member of the Kettering Seventh-Day Adventist Church and serves on the church's Good Neighbor House Board of Trustees (clinic).
CURRENT BOARD AND COMMISSION SERVICES
GREENE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Board
AMERICAN RED CROSS DAYTON CHAPTER
Board (Emeritus)
DAYTON MASONIC CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Board
LAMBDA CHI ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY
Board of Councilors
SOIN MEDICAL CENTER
Board
THINK PATENTED
Board
KETTERING COLLEGE
Board
GOOD NEIGHBOR HOUSE
Board
SURFING FLORIDA MUSEUM
Board
OHIO (GOVERNMENT) OIL AND GAS COMMISSION
Commissioner
OPERATION 2000 CHERRY TREE PROJECT
Board
Miami Valley Military
Affairs Association ( MVMAA )
Board