(INDIANAPOLIS) — The Indiana Chamber of Commerce formally introduced its new chairman at an awards dinner tonight. Ron Christian, an executive at Evansville-based Vectren Corporation, has been tapped to lead the organization’s board of directors for 2017.
Christian, executive vice president external affairs, chief legal officer and corporate secretary at Vectren, has served on the Indiana Chamber’s board and various policy committees since 2006. Additionally, he has been a part of the Indiana Business for Responsive Government policy group since 2014. Christian was also a member of the 24-person Indiana Vision 2025 task force, which developed the long-range economic plan for the state. In 2013, Christian was named an Indiana Chamber Volunteer of the Year.
The evening festivities followed the Indiana Chamber’s fall board of directors and annual membership meetings earlier in the day. The Indiana Chamber’s board members are presidents, CEOs and other top officers from companies throughout the state.
At the 27th Annual Awards Dinner before a crowd of nearly 1,500, Christian led the recognition for the Indiana Chamber’s outgoing board chair, Indianapolis businessman Tom Hirons, president and CEO of Hirons Advertising + Public Relations.
Also honored during the awards program were Sonny Beck, CEO of Beck’s Hybrids as Business Leader of the Year; Rep. Dan Leonard (R-Huntington) as Government Leader of the Year; and Fishers as the Lifeline Data Centers Community of the Year. For just the second year, the Indiana Chamber named Indiana Vision 2025 Dynamic Leaders of the Year: Matt MacBeth and Don Inmon of Carmel-based pi lab – creators of Edwin the Duck.
Pulitzer Prize-winner George F. Will, a columnist for The Washington Post, and regular contributor to Fox News, was the keynote speaker.
A southern Indiana native, Christian started his career as a utility lawyer for Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis, after graduating from the University of Evansville, and then with a law degree from the University of Louisville. Christian returned to southern Indiana in 1999 during the merger of Indiana Gas Co. and Southern Indiana Gas & Electric Co., which created Vectren in 2000. Vectren serves more than one million natural gas customers in the state and west-central Ohio, and electric customers in southwest Indiana.
“Ron has been a key partner for the Indiana Chamber for many years and he has passionately given his time and expertise to work on various policy committees, and especially as a member of the Indiana Vision 2025 task force,” states Indiana Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar. “We look forward to his leadership and increased involvement with our organization over the coming year.”
Christian’s chairmanship duties for the Indiana Chamber extend through the group’s next fall board meeting in November 2017.
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The Indiana Chamber partners with 25,000 members and investors – representing over four million Hoosiers – to achieve the mission of “cultivating a world-class environment which provides economic opportunity and prosperity.”
