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Oregon Leadership Summit Brings Together 1,200 Business Leaders

Posted by on December 10, 2025

The 2025 Oregon Business Plan Leadership Summit (often called the Oregon Business Summit) focused on the theme “At a Crossroads,” highlighting that Oregon’s traditional sources of growth are no longer enough and that the state needs updated policies to stay competitive and improve shared prosperity across regions and communities.​

We want to thank Rob Stuart for attending, along with his team from OnPoint Community Credit Union, for participating and sponsoring at the Silver Level.  I also want to thank Stacie Wyss-Schoenborn, Central Willamette (OBI Board Member and Business Oregon Commission), for attending.  GoWest Credit Union Association attended and sponsored at the Bronze level.

The event was held December 8, 2025, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. This was the 23rd annual gathering of business, government, nonprofit, and education leaders.​ The main summit ran during the day with plenary sessions and breakout discussions, followed in the evening by “Food Forward 2.0,” a reception focused on Oregon’s food and beverage sector.​

The summit framed Oregon as being “at a crossroads,” emphasizing that existing systems for regulation, land use, and economic development are not keeping up with current challenges such as slow growth, rising unemployment, and competitiveness concerns.​ The overarching goals, consistent with the Oregon Business Plan, are to grow wages, increase the share of Oregonians working, expand household wealth, and improve economic mobility across regions and demographic groups.​

Speakers and materials stressed the need to streamline regulations and permitting, modernize land-use and tax incentive tools, and create a more predictable environment for investment, especially in key industries like semiconductors and advanced manufacturing.​ Discussion also focused on workforce development and training so Oregon workers can fill higher-wage jobs, as well as on updating statewide economic development strategies, sometimes referred to as a “Prosperity Roadmap.”​

Governor Tina Kotek and other state legislative leaders used the summit context to reinforce commitments to improving Oregon’s business climate and to pushing legislation that would fast-track major development projects and refine incentive programs.​ Business leaders from sectors such as apparel and semiconductors highlighted both Oregon’s strengths and the risk that companies might expand elsewhere if competitiveness, permitting, and regulatory issues are not addressed.​

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Oregon Advocacy.

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