The President of the Marion Area Chamber of Commerce, Matt Carbary, will resign later this year after 12 years of service and 4 years of leadership to the organization to take a position with his family’s business, long-time Chamber supporters, Sims Brothers Recycling. During his tenure, Carbary championed collaboration and inclusiveness, working with other community leaders to improve quality of life and help make Marion an economic and workforce development driver in Central Ohio.

“While I am looking forward to joining my family at Sims, it has been an honor to work with our staff, board, and partners in serving Chamber members and helping Marion continue to be a great place to live and work” said Carbary. “Like the community overall, for many reasons, including my passionate and dedicated staff, the Chamber is in an excellent position as the Great Connector and Advocator for our education, business, nonprofit, government and faithbased organizations, making this a great opportunity for whomever is selected to take the helm. This was the right time for me to begin a new chapter of my life. I will always cherish the opportunities and experiences the Chamber and its Board of Directors, have provided me. Thank you for the honor and privilege of serving,”

Carbary started as Project Manager of the Chamber in early 2011 and assumed the role of President in 2019. Carbary followed his predecessor and mentor, long-time Chamber President Pam Hall.

The Chamber, under his leadership, saw the transition of the office to the beautiful Harding Centre as well as the expansion of existing educational and networking programs, such as Networking at Noon three times a year, the area’s largest business expo, and new programs such as the Supervisor Six-Pack and Small Business Marketing 101 workshops. Carbary expanded cost-savings benefits to members and created a 501c3 education and workforce-development focused Marion Area Chamber Foundation as well as the new Nonprofit Executives, Entrepreneurship and Black Business Councils and acquired the Marion Youth Leadership and Marion Young Professionals programs. He worked with Downtown Marion Inc, Marion Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Marion City/County Regional Planning, and Marion CAN DO, to create the Marion Coalition, championed the City/County 911 Dispatch consolidation and the expansion of efforts by the County Land Bank and others to help reduce the significant number of blighted and vacant properties in Marion County, including through the Land Bank’s active Housing Coalition.

He helped form the new wave of Neighborhood Associations across Marion City, strengthened the relationship with the Greater Ohio Policy Center, created the Chamber’s Legislative Affairs Committee to help formalize advocacy efforts, partnered with United Way of Marion County to commission the upcoming EnVISIONing the 21st Century 10-Year Lookback document and worked hard to bring a yet to be officially announced program to help make childcare affordable to increase the community’s labor pool; all while overseeing the Chamber membership grow to the 10th largest in the State.

Kevin Smith, Chairman of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, commented “It is with great regret that I, and the members of the Board of Directors, have accepted Matt Carbary’s resignation. As President of the Chamber, Matt has provided invaluable leadership through his passion for helping to make Marion a better place for us all to live and work. Matt’s dedication to the Chamber, and his work throughout the community, have been an inspiration to all who know him. He will certainly be missed at the Chamber of Commerce, but we are excited that he will remain an integral part of the Marion community. Even though Matt was born, raised and attended school in Michigan, he is a true Marionite through and through. We wish him good fortune in all that his future may bring.”

In 2010, Carbary graduated from Michigan State University with a Master’s Degree in Public Policy following undergraduate study in Political Science.

Carbary has integrated himself in the community by serving in many community organizations such as Downtown Marion, Marion Rotary and YMCA Boards, is a member of Marion Area Workforce Acceleration Collaborative, Drug Free Marion Coalition Executive Committee, Transportation Coalition, Childcare Alliance, Downtown Marion Business Owner Collaborative, and many steering committees including the prestigious nationwide US Chamber Business Leads Fellowship Education and Workforce cohort, Ohio Chamber Education and Workforce Development, Made in Marion Expo, MarionMade, Marion Minority Commission, Marion Star’s Dynamic Dozen, Creating Healthy Communities, Community Health Assessment, Microfarm Project, and The Forge.

Carbary is married to Chelsea (Sims) Carbary and has a soon-to-be 2-year-old daughter Claire.

“I’m so proud of the community and our renewed and reinvigorated spirit of collaboration and entrepreneurship” says Carbary. “I can’t wait to be a business partner working with the Chamber to see what’s next!”

The Marion Area Chamber of Commerce has put together a search committee to select the next President/CEO. Contact Chamber Board Chair Kevin Smith for more information at kcsmith@firstcitizensnational.com.

Marion Area Chamber of Commerce 267 W Center St, Suite 200 Marion, OH 43302 Office: 740.382.2181 Fax: 740.387.7722 www.MarionAreaChamber.org

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