January 2021 - The Young Professional

January 26, 2021

Tom Marsden

Ashton Love Joins tHRive Board

tHRive is pleased to announce that Ashton Love has been elected as Vice Chair of Membership on tHRive’s Board of Directors for the 2021 calendar year. The young professional program of the Hampton Roads Chamber is approaching its sixth year as one of the 757’s premiere young professional networks, and boasts a roster of over 3,000 diverse members in practically all of the region’s primary industries.

Ashton will take a leadership role on the Membership committee, which is responsible for engaging with current members and providing a welcoming environment for new and future members to network, share and grow. When asked why he joined the tHRive Board, Love stated “I’m passionate about building our young professional community in the region and I’m excited to help continue, and grow, the success and impact of tHRive.”

Love will also be integral in developing safe and opportunistic events for new and current members to connect throughout his two-year term on the Board. “As we begin 2021, I am very pleased to have Ashton joining our Board of Directors,” says tHRive Chairman Tom Marsden. “He brings an energy to the position that will surely help connect and motivate our own members to get more involved with tHRive.”

Ashton Love is employed as an Investment Executive at Davenport & Company LLC, where he helps a variety of clients with their investment and financial planning needs which can range from retirement planning to stock and investment portfolio management.

Melissa Katz Joins tHRive Board

January 26, 2021

Tom Marsden

Melissa Katz Joins tHRive Board

tHRive is pleased to announce that Melissa Katz has been elected as Vice Chair of Branding on tHRive’s Board of Directors for the 2021 calendar year. The young professional program of the Hampton Roads Chamber is approaching its sixth year as one of the 757’s premiere young professional networks, and boasts a roster of over 3,000 diverse members in practically all of the region’s primary industries.

Melissa Katz will support the branding committee, as the Branding Vice Chair. This role is responsible for defining, sharing, engaging, and evolving what it means to be a part of tHRive. In 2021, the team is focused on re energizing members in areas of professional development, cultivating relationships, and community engagement. When asked why she joined the tHRive Board, Katz stated “I’m very excited to join this impressive Board, and hope to use design to create a positive impact with the people in our region.”

Katz will also be integral in telling the story of tHRive and giving a voice to young professionals throughout her two-year term on the Board. “As we begin 2021, I am very pleased to have Melissa joining our Board of Directors,” says tHRive Chairman Tom Marsden. “She will no doubt play an integral role in representing the young professional community, and I commend her for committing time and energy into moving our region forward through her work with tHRive.”

Melissa Katz is employed as a Design Manager at The Port of Virginia where she leads the creative direction and evolution for their visual design and experiences.

January 26, 2021

Anne Baumler

tHRive Announces It’s 2021 Board

tHRive, the young professional program of the Hampton Roads Chamber, has announced its new Board Leadership for 2021. The working Board, with the support of the Chamber, has elected Tom Marsden as tHRive Chairman for the 2021 term, along with four new Board members.

Marsden is a Vice President at Marathon Consulting and previously served as the Vice-Chair of tHRive’s Regional Engagement Committee in 2020. As tHRive Chairman, he will serve as the program’s leader and work alongside the Board of Directors to continue the progress made by his predecessor, Norfolk Southern’s Assistant Director of Labor Relations, Daniel Sileo. Like it did many with many organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic caused many challenges for tHRive in 2020. His goals for a renewed and reenergized 2021 include: getting back and delivering tHRive’s core principles of professional development, creating strong relationships, and community engagement; reengaging current members of tHRive and attracting new members; enhancing the diversity of tHRive as a representation of Hampton Roads’ young professional community; and championing the responsibility of tHRive’s members to give back to and make an impact in the community, among many others.

Hampton Roads Chamber President & CEO, Bryan Stephens says, “I am immensely impressed with the 2021 tHRive Board of Directors. They represent the best of our young professionals in the Hampton Roads business community. I am confident they will continue to lead the 3000+ members of tHRive to accomplish their objectives this year in spite of the pandemic. I look forward to watching them as they cultivate regional awareness and community development by providing a platform to empower young professionals, give them a voice, and invest in the future of our region”.

tHRive is supported by a robust and active team of volunteer committees devoted to promoting an attractive and dynamic community by engaging in the development of the region.

Marsden says, “On top of all the excitement for what 2021 will bring, I am very excited to take on the position of the chairman of the board of tHRive. I thank our previous chair Daniel Sileo for all his efforts for tHRive. I take on this responsibility knowing that I have a strong and energized board around me to recalibrate tHRive for the business environment of 2021 and beyond. We hope to continue to grow on what tHRive has done well and use tHRive as a conduit to make an impact on issues that are important to the 757 young professional community.”

The 2021 tHRive Board is as follows:

Chair – Tom Marsden
Marathon Consulting
Vice President

Chamber Liaison – Anne Baumler
Hampton Roads Chamber
Director of Events

Director of Administration – Lauren Bland
Hampton Roads Soccer Council
Executive Director

Branding Chair – Lauren Roberts
Chesapeake Public Schools
Special Education Teacher

Branding Vice-Chair – Melissa Katz
Virginia Port Authority
Design Manager

Membership Chair – Kiersten Stanton
Aerotek Inc. – Aston Carter
Business Development Manager

Membership Vice Co-Chair – Neil Anglen
Business Development and Sales

Membership Vice Co-Chair – Ashton Love
Investment Executive
Davenport & Company

Events Chair – Caroline Myatt
The Foleck Center
Marketing Manager

Events Vice-Chair – Monica Wilsey
Heather Murray Homes
Business Development Manager

Regional Engagement Chair – Amanda Green
Hampton Roads Workforce Council
Youth Program Coordinator

Regional Engagement Vice-Chair – Amasa Smith
CIVIC Leadership Institute
Director of Programming and Communications

January 26, 2021

Tom Marsden

2021 Membership and COVID Poll

As we all know, 2020 has been a challenging and unexpected year. tHRive is excited to step into 2021 with a fresh and renewed focus. tHRive is taking a look at all aspects of our programming to make sure it aligns with our members’ goals and tHRive’s mission. We also want to ask our members how they are doing and how they have been affected by the current pandemic. All of these answers will help chart tHRive’s course for now and into the future, so we can bring the most value to its members. Please keep in mind these survey results are 100% anonymous.

Please click here to take the survey! Thank you for all your help.

January 26, 2021

Tom Marsden

Message from the 2021 tHRive Chair

Dear tHRive Membership,

Welcome to 2021…we’re excited to see you soon!

2020 was far from the year that we all had planned, this includes the goals of tHRive. Most of our plans switched to handling the COVID-19, and due to the nature of our in person events, a lot of our plans had to adjust. During these times many of us had to put our work and family effort to the forefront, which created a difficult scenario for tHRive to execute many 2020 goals. The board and our committees have started planning for a renewed 2021 and are very excited to getting back and delivering on tHRive’s core principles of professional development, creating strong relationships, and community engagement.

tHRive did have some successes in 2020 and started out strong with a great financial event hosted by our Diamond Partner, ABNB Federal Credit Union. We also continued our regular table for tens and even hosted a few virtual events. We hope we can get back to some of those events tHRive has been known for, but in the meantime we plan to get a bit creative with our programming. Our fundraising and volunteering efforts still continued throughout the pandemic, and we ended up raising almost $2,600 for our organization of the year, and contributed 20 hours of volunteer hours. We thank all of our members that have assisted in those efforts. Due to the interrupted efforts of 2020, we have decided to continue to support Samaritan House as our organization of the year for 2021!

One of our first acts in 2021 is to reach out to you, our members, to make sure our plans aligns with our members’ goals. Please let us know what we am do well and what we could do better. If you have any ideas on things tHRive could do, please do not hesitate to reach out to info@ypthrive.org, and please take time to complete the brief survey below that will help us develop programming for this year.

On top of all the excitement for what 2021 will bring, I am very excited to take on the position of the chairman of the board of tHRive. I thank our previous chair Daniel Sileo for all his efforts for tHRive. I take on this responsibility knowing that I have a strong and energized board around me to recalibrate tHRive for the business environment of 2021 and beyond. We hope to continue to grow on what tHRive has done well and use tHRive as a conduit to make an impact on issues that are important to The 757 young professional community. Thank you all for continuing to support tHRive, making it one of the premier young professional organizations around!

At your service,

Tom Marsden
tHRive Chair