Jessica Anderson

Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

Jessica Anderson leads the Chamber’s strategy and vision as the Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Jessica oversees the Chamber’s day-to-day operations, membership and budget, directs public policy initiatives and advocacy agenda, represents the interests of the business community before government officials, media, and the public, and develops and implements long-term goals and strategies to ensure the organization is aligned to deliver on its purpose to Champion Business and Empower Leaders. Jessica also served as Interim President & CEO of the Chamber for the first half of 2025.

Jessica has extensive experience in public policy and big city government, coalition building and strategic planning. During her 10 years at the City of San Diego as a senior advisor to two Mayors, she led negotiations for some of the largest agreements in the City’s history, negotiated ordinances resulting in positive outcomes for the business community, and led visioning discussions and community engagement efforts on highly visible and important civic projects. In addition, she managed the development and negotiated approval of the City’s $6 billion annual budget, resulting in balanced budgets that preserved core services even through periods of economic downturn and resource deficits. Jessica also provided housing policy consulting services with LeSar Development Consultants and worked for the City of New York under the Bloomberg administration in housing, media and entertainment.

Jessica graduated magna cum laude from New York University as a Founder’s Day University Honors Scholar and received continuing education from both the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business and Bloomberg Harvard’s City Leadership Initiative. She was recognized as the San Diego Business Journal’s 2024 Nonprofit Business Woman of the Year and named to the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) 2024 40 Under 40 list of emerging leaders shaping the Chamber of Commerce industry. She currently serves on the Board of the San Diego Convention Center and the Downtown San Diego Partnership, and is a graduate of the LEAD Influence San Diego class of 2024.