‘Who doesn’t love St. Charles?‘: New Director of the St. Charles Chamber hits the ground running

The St. Charles Chamber of Commerce’s new executive director Rebecca Greenlee is excited to be at the organization’s helm and has big plans for the future.

The chamber’s board of directors had been searching for someone to replace former executive director Debbie Gurley since she retired in October, 2024. Gurley had led the chamber since 2022.

Greenlee was named executive director on Jan. 6.

Board chairman Joshua Feagans said the choice to hire Greenlee out of the more than 80 applicants was a unanimous decision. He said she shined above the rest.

“She’s just a spectacular addition to our chamber. Anyone who spends two seconds with Becky will understand why,” Feagans said. “Not only does she have great experience, but her demeanor is fantastic. [Greenlee] just has such a welcoming, inviting, calming presence. It’s spectacular, but more importantly, her background is also stunning.”

Feagans said the chamber sees great opportunity for growth and has a solid foundation, they just needed someone to come in and build on it.

“We’re all very very excited,” Feagans said. “We had a lot of good candidates come through, but Becky shined above everyone...I think she’s not only going to fit in with our staff and our board, but our members are going to love her.”

Greenlee said her experience writing and administering grants, event management and how personable she is, are all parts of what makes her the right fit for the executive director position.

“Who doesn’t love St. Charles? It’s one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever been in,” Greenlee said. “It’s just a beautiful place to work.”

Greenlee lives in Burlington with her husband and their five children. She grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois and earned a degree in Broadcast meteorology from Western Illinois University.

After college, she began working in grant writing and led a 20 year career with various organizations in the nonprofit sector– most notably with the Grand Victoria Foundation in Elgin and the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois and the Boy Scouts Three Fires Council in St. Charles.

In her most recent role, Greenlee served as the first Executive Director of the Kaneland Foundation, which supports teachers, staff and administrators in the Kaneland School District by securing grant funding.

Greenlee said the continued development in St. Charles is part of what makes it an attractive place to work, and she hopes to keep the momentum going while supporting established businesses.

While she is just getting started, Greenlee already has plans to improve efficiency. She said streamlining internal operations will be key to fully supporting the St. Charles business community in a more sustainable way.

Her main goals are achieving membership growth and stability, improving events, guiding groups and committees, and working more with other chambers.

One of the main challenges Greenlee sees the chamber facing is stagnant membership numbers. She said it gains and lose about the same number of members each month, so one of her first jobs will be to find out why and develop a plan to address the issue.

“I feel if we can figure out the formula for that, the chamber is going to explode and really be able to create networks and connections it hasn’t been able to at this point,” she said.

Greenlee has already begun planning changes to some events, starting with Charlemagne, the city’s annual community award ceremony coming up in May. The event will be held at The Royal Fox Country Club, after being held at the Q Center for the last decade.

“[Charlemagne] has been done the same way for a number of years,” Greenlee said. “My team and I are ready to make a change with that event and I feel like we’re going to elevate it this year and really make it one of those events that people are vying to attend.”

Greenlee said she and her new staff have already begun to click, and said she is confident that they are going to be a “solid, well-oiled machine” heading into the future.