Nancy Ploeger

Nancy Ploeger is the President of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. Enhancing New York City's economic growth and advocacy for small businesses has been Nancy's goal for the past 17 years.  Since joining the Chamber in 1994 as the Executive Director, Nancy has represented the business community on a wide range of critical issues, most notably those involving health insurance for SMEs, MWBE certification, government procurement, small businesses globalization, diversities and business resources for services sectors, among other issues.   

Nancy has developed MCC's membership from 250+ to over 2000, launched a variety of economic development initiatives and committees and established the Chamber's relationships with officials at all levels of government.  This powerful network contributes and supports to build the Chamber into a small business advocating force with expanded influence across the globe.

For the past few years, the Chamber has become a catalyst that has created and strengthened a global SME network including India, Spain, South Africa, Brazil, China, Korea and Turkey etc. to build up SMEs’ global expansion capacity and bring about sustained competitive growth. In order to develop MCC's international presence, Nancy created the MCC Chamber of Commerce Foundation which oversees the global technical assistance and export programs as well as all chamber educational programs. With these vehicles, Nancy works closely with both NYS Economic Development Department and NYC Economic Development Department’s International Division to generate global businesses for MCC’s members and attract investments into New York.

Nancy is also one of the Founders of the International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC), partnering with Ambassador Ruth Davis from the U.S. Department of State, Chairman of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Indian Federation of Chambers of Commerce. The objective of this joint effort is to promote the growth of women entrepreneurial businesses through global outreach. 

MCC's community development arm is the MCC Community Benefit Fund (“CBF”).  Nancy serves as the President of CBF which has provided over two million+ in grants to NYC nonprofit organizations. Each year additional fund is raised to expand the community development efforts.  CBF’s mission is to support community-based non-profits that contribute toward improving the quality of life in Manhattan.  The Second and Third Avenue Street Fairs are managed through the MCC CBF and proceeds from these fairs are disbursed in grants to non-profits in Community Board  8. The MCC CBF also supports a local high school and continues to develop innovative projects, such as the Volunteer Expo, which will benefit the community at large. She was a founding member of NYC Volunteer Expos in 2005, and continues to serve on its Executive Committee. 

Nancy was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg to serve on the Committee of the MWBE Advisory Board since 2006.  She also serves on a number of boards and advisory groups, including U.S. Chamber of Commerce (BCLC), New York Women's Agenda, The Doe Fund, New York District Export Council, Parent Jobnet, Health Advocates, New York City Department of Small Business Services and the Small Business Task Force of the Manhattan Borough President’s Office. She served as the Chairperson of Chamber Alliance of New York State in 2007 and is on the Steering Committee of the NYDEC World Trade Week Committee.

Prior to joining MCC, Nancy was the Vice President for TSI, New York, NY where she lead the efforts to build one of NYC's premiere health and fitness corporations, she was responsible for overseeing 28 health clubs with over 1,000 employees in New York, Washington, Boston and Switzerland.  Prior to TSI, Nancy worked for 7 years with Federated Department Stores (now Macy’s) in Executive Placement travelling nationwide to recruit top retail talent to the corporation.

Nancy lives in New York City. She is a native of St. Louis, MO and a graduate of Monmouth University in New Jersey.