Kristina Park has been appointed by The Greater Naples Chamber as its new CEO. Park, who assumed the role in January, is bringing extensive chamber leadership experience from other markets down to Southwest Florida, with the goals of not only retaining and adding members but being a dependable voice for the business community through public policy advocacy.

Born and raised in High Point, North Carolina, the furniture capital of the world, Park learned quickly what it was like to live in a seasonal market. Twice per year, the city hosted the world’s largest home furnishings trade show, and Park recalled families fleeing from their hometown during those times to get away from the influx of visitors.

“There was a very awkward attempt to coexist between this robust industry and the resident quality of life, so I watched this for years growing up,” Park said.

At 15, Park took a high school trip to Haiti and developed a passion for global economic development, fascinated by how residential quality of life can be improved through the infusion of outside resources. While studying tourism in college, she traveled worldwide to places such as Ecuador, India and Romania to do both charity and community development work. Only one month after graduating college, Park became a director of a tourism development agency in North Carolina, doing destination marketing, “Through that, I just kept understanding that my passion for doing what I was doing was bringing people here to this area so we could infuse dollars and improve the way of life,” Park said.

During that time, Park was introduced to the concept of a chamber. She had grown a love for Florida through vacationing each year to visit her grandmother, and decided it was time for a change from North Carolina. She moved to the Tampa Bay area and started a social media management company while familiarizing herself with the market.

Noticing a void in the local chamber’s tourism efforts, she wrote a proposal to the St. Petersburg Area Chamber’s president to conduct a four-month analysis to evaluate how to grow the brand and support the tourism industry. She was hired by the chamber and worked there for several years, becoming the visitor experience manager.

Park continued to work up the ranks and was presented with an opportunity to work with a chamber in Clearwater. When Clearwater Regional Chamber and Clearwater Beach Chamber merged to become Amplify Clearwater, Park helped facilitate the merge and became the organization’s chief operating officer.

“[The role] gave me a lot more in-depth understanding of the operations of a chamber,” Park said. “The beautiful part is over the last 13 years, I’ve worked in almost every role of the chamber.”

Working under a former elected official, Park’s time with Amplify Clearwater sparked a passion for public policy. She watched and learned how to effectively engage with elected officials and advocate on behalf of the business community.

“Policy affects business in a dramatic way, and this organization has the opportunity to harness the power of the collective voice to ensure we are protecting and creating an environment that is pro-business,” Park said. “That doesn’t always equate to pro-development; it means ‘How do we get somewhere together?’” After working in almost every role of the chamber over the past 13 years, Park was recruited last October to be the new CEO of the Naples Chamber.

Last year, the Chamber adopted a fiveyear strategic plan to become a more valuable asset for its members. The plan was created through interviews with stakeholders, businesses of all sizes and non-members who could be potential partners. It was determined that there are four top priorities for the chamber: member services, leadership development, workforce and economic development and public policy impact. Park said that it has been a useful tool when getting situated in her new role as a leader of a 1,200-member organization.

“I’m so grateful to walk into an organization that is so well supported with a plan handed to me in this roadmap,” Park said. “Right now, it’s just downloading as much history and information as possible so we can start to put some structure around how we’re going to do these things over the next five years.”

However, Park’s initiatives are not limited to what is in the strategic plan. With more than 75 elections taking place in Collier County in 2024, Park is making it a priority to ensure that the business community realizes the importance of voting while also making connections with elected officials to ensure partnership and to help them understand the lens of business owners. In the first Wake Up, Naples! event with Park as CEO, the chamber hosted Rick Asnani, executive director of the Florida Institute for Political Leadership, to provide political insights on what to expect for the upcoming election cycle.

“It’s very important for both businesses and residents to be deeply involved in understanding who the candidates are, what they stand for and what they represent, and to get out to vote because your vote does matter,’” Park said. “So get out to vote and make sure your voice is heard in shaping who those individuals are going to be in those seats that are making these very important decisions.”

From what Park has seen and heard in the two months of living in Southwest Florida, she considers the lack of affordability as the area’s biggest challenge. She said that it affects not only her team members, many of whom have long commutes, but the county’s entire economy.

“We’ve only got so much land, it’s going to sprawl, so it’s what can we do collectively— whether it’s density, it’s creative reuse of existing spaces—there are some different projects that are popping up right now that are really creating some interest and intrigue,” Park said. “I think we’re just looking to hear more voices about how we can create solutions and spaces.”

Although the county continues to grow and affordability continues to be a struggle, Park thinks that the local business support is so strong that that business community will continue to grow into the future and not become threatened by more national corporations that could take away from the area’s charm.

“We want commerce to thrive, and we want everyone to feel included, but we also say, ‘Do you fit into the culture of the community that we’re trying to build toward?’” Park said. “Do we know where we want to go in the next 10 years as a community? Who is defining goals and who is driving that? I think we have a significant role to play.”

The Chamber will be hosting a public meet and greet with Park from 4-6 p.m. on April 2, with the location yet to be announced.

“I’m obviously getting the lay of the land here in Southwest Florida. I’m always interested in gaining more perspective on where we’ve come from and where we want to go,” Park said. “I think we all want a lot of the same things, so let’s figure out the right way that we can protect what has made this community so special and attracted us here to begin with, and as we continue to grow and evolve as a community, [make sure] we do that in a collective way with as many voices at the table as possible.”

This story appeared in The Naples Press on March 15