The Bartlesville Development Authority welcomes in a new Vice President of Business Development.

Chris Batchelder was named the BDA's new Vice President of Business Development on Wednesday morning. Batchelder believes he can speak to most industries and talk their language in this new role. He says he looks forward to being a light for the BDA.

Batchelder says the BDA focuses on doing everything they can to increase tax revenue for the City of Bartlesville. He says the primary way they achieve that is by recruiting businesses to move to Bartlesville and expand; they look at every facet of each industry.

The BDA does everything it can to visit with people to see the community. Batchelder says Bartlesville is a great place to live. He says they want to do everything they can to bring exposure to the city around the world, which is what he will be doing every day.

Batchelder served as a community and business relations advisor for Arvest Bank in Bartlesville from January 2020 to September 2021. Batchelder held eight years of industry experience prior to the role, including the time he spent serving as a commercial lender at Arvest.

Before working for Arvest, Batchelder served as CEO for Oklahoma State University's Alumni Association where he worked to grow OSU's alumni base. This led Batchelder to run his own consulting firm before working for Arvest. He would travel around the country to help alumni associations to build their alumni relations programs.

Batchelder earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University. He has been involved with both the Bartlesville and Stillwater public school foundations, Leadership Bartlesville and the Bartlesville Sports Commission, among numerous other civic endeavors.

Growing up in Bartlesville, Batchelder says he wants to do everything he can to convince people to move here.

Batchelder resigned from the Bartlesville Development Authority's Board of Trustees in order to take his new role. The vacant trustee seat is anticipated to be re-visited in the BDA's next meeting.