DEL BIRCH
Business Outreach Specialist & Economic Development
Del Birch is the business outreach specialist for the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. Del joined the Chamber in 2019 after retiring from the leadership team at United Way of Erie County in 2017 and then serving as interim executive director for the Center for Family Services for most of 2018.
An Erie native, Del graduated from Cathedral Prep and earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s in advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He started his career in corporate marketing in 1977, working for Westinghouse Defense and Black & Decker in Baltimore, MD. Returning home to Erie County in 1991, he lived and worked in Corry as part of the last management team at office furniture manufacturer CorryHiebert. Moving back to Erie in 1993, Del worked in sales for the private sector and transitioned into economic development in 1996, working for the former Economic Development Corporation of Erie County. He then co-founded a technology and consulting firm in Erie, ExecutivePulse Inc. in 1999, serving as vice president through 2011.
His role at the Erie Regional Chamber is not only his “second act,” it’s his second go-around conducting business outreach. On behalf of the Chamber, Del proactively contacts business owners, startup companies, and aspiring entrepreneurs to identify their challenges and opportunities and then connect them to available programs and services to further their business goals. He is consistently impressed with the drive and vision of the men and women who own businesses and provide family-sustaining wages to our residents. He is encouraged by the growing number of new businesses established by Erie’s diverse BIPOC population who reinforce Erie’s longstanding entrepreneurial spirit.
Del has also been active in the Erie community. He has served as a co-coordinator of the East Bayfront Watch and vice chair of the Bayfront East Side Taskforce (BEST), a nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization of Erie’s oldest neighborhood. He has previously served on the City’s Blighted Property Review Committee, the Neighborhood Resource Organization, and the Erie County Policy and Planning Council. He currently serves as the president of the Nonprofit Partnership’s board of directors.
Del continues to call Erie’s historic East Bayfront home where he lives with 4 mostly well-behaved cats.
