Ken Oplinger currently serves as the President/CEO of the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce & Industry, where he has been since October 2003. He has been leading Chambers of Commerce in the Western US for over 16 years, 10 of those years in California.
Ken is a graduate of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, where he received a BA in Political Science and Spanish. Ken is also a graduate of the Institute for Organizational Management at UCLA. He is a Past President of SUPERCHEX, the Chamber Executives organization representing Northern California Chamber Executives and served as the Chairman of the Board of WACE, the Western Association of Chamber Executives, in 2006. Ken is an Accredited Chamber Executive, having received his accreditation in February 2003 from WACE, and was reaccredited in 2008. Ken currently serves as the co-chair of the BESTT Coalition (Business for Economic Security, Tourism and Trade), a bi-national coalition of business and industry concerned about the affects of implementing the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) on the Canada/US Border. He currently serves as the Chair of the Planning Commission for the City of Blaine, WA.
Chris McCartan Business Manager
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Chris brings over 20 years of non-profit association management to the Chamber. She served 17 years as Administrator of Clean Sound Cooperative, Inc., whose mission was to prevent and clean up oil spills in Puget Sound. Prior to that, she was a Senior Associate in the Seattle company, Miller Hamick Partners, Inc., a firm involved in developing communication strategies for clients involved in public affairs. For 5 years, she served as a staff member at UW’s Institute for Marine Studies, a graduate school in marine policy and planning. She served on the Board of Directors for Waterfront Awareness, the non-profit group who founded Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center in Seattle. She is the mother of a grown daughter. She enjoys reading, hiking and collecting antiques.
Sheila Connors Marketing & Events Director
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Since she was in the 6th grade selling her Amah’s chocolate chip cookies to fellow classmates, Sheila Connors has always been in Sales. Graduating from Northern Arizona University with a BSBA in Marketing seemed like the perfect fit. Working for hotel chains such as Holiday Inn, Red Lion, and DoubleTree, she was able to build up her sales experience. Once Sheila got into catering and event planning she found her niche. While attending University of Phoenix in pursuit of her Masters of Arts in Organizational Management she was recruited by Resort Semiahmoo as their Director of Catering and Conference Services. She and her daughter Kimberly made the move to Whatcom County. She then became the Catering Director at Western Washington University. With more than 20 years of conference and catering experience it just seemed to be a perfect fit for her current role as Marketing & Events Director for the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce. Sheila currently resides in Bellingham and has 2 grandchildren Mackenzie (7) and Weston (4) that keep her in awe daily.
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