Lisa Navrkal Looks Forward to Community Growth
By KELSY LORIN TAYLOR
Web Editor and Feature Writer
NEW DIRECTIONS: CEO of the Bixby Chamber of Commerce Lisa Navrkal pauses to discuss her experiences and the directions that the community is taking this year. She has been involved with the Chamber for ten years in total and has enjoyed every moment.
The Bixby Chamber of Commerce has been under the leadership of Lisa Navrkal for the last four years. With her determination and dedication to businesses in the area, she hopes to impact the Chamber in even more ways through the next year.
In 2001, Navrkal was asked to assist the Bixby Chamber of Commerce for a couple of weeks. “Tom Todd was the at the time, a great mentor and friend. A couple weeks turned into a meaningful career. I went full time with the Bixby Chamber of Commerce in 2006 under Deb Marshall and in 2007 became .”
“The Bixby Metro Chamber is about bringing out the best in business and our community. We strive to offer our partner’s opportunities to promote and brand themselves; assist in building relationships through networking functions and keep our business partners informed and educated in order to ensure thriving prospering community.”
Since 2007 the Chamber has gone through many significant changes. “A new location and name change to be more inclusive of who our partnership represents, and experiencing a 260 percent growth over three years have been just a few of these changes,” she exclaims.
Furthermore, a number of awards and recognitions have been presented to the Bixby Chamber of Commerce in recent years. Navrkal explains that one of the largest honors was given just last year. “In 2010, the Chamber was recognized by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives as one of the top 10 Chambers in the nation for our size in membership growth.”
With the support of everyone involved with the Bixby Chamber of Commerce, Navrkal hopes to continue working to develop and deliver quality programs, products to promote our partner businesses, and services to benefit our community and business district.
She feels that the community of Bixby is continuing to move in a positive and exciting direction. “The Chamber recently passed a resolution of support for the upcoming bond election for Bixby. We pledge to support and assist in the passage of the bond, which will bring needed transportation, infrastructure and quality of life issues.”
Navrkal continues, “Bixby remains one of the fastest growing cities in Oklahoma due to its excellent educational school system, progressive business environment, quality residential developments, an extensive park and trail system, well-established civic organizations and a progressive minded city government.”
She explains that as the residential and in turn, business community grows, so does the Chamber of Commerce. “As we continue to grow we try to make sure we remain connected to each of our partners on a one on one basis.”
In addition to being involved with the Bixby Chamber of Commerce, Navrkal enjoys spending time with her family and friends. “I am very lucky after moving here in 1999 from St. Louis, my parents moved to Bixby a few years later and then last year my sister and her family moved here from Illinois.”
Navrkal has one son who is a senior at Bixby High School. “Austin is my pride. He is softhearted, genuine, very intelligent and his personality has developed into the biggest ham I have ever seen. Although my parents would say he is just like me as far as his one-liners and jokes are concerned.”
With the upcoming warm weather, some of her favorite activities to participate in are sports. I enjoy playing tennis and golf although I am not very good at either,” she laughs.
For additional information about the Bixby Chamber of Commerce, call 918-366-9445 or visit www.bixbychamber.com.
Updated 03-09-2011
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