Gene Barr is the retired president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the largest broad-based business advocacy group in Pennsylvania, now working as an advisor to the organization. Barr joined the Chamber in 2003 and became president in 2011. He has more than 45 years of experience in politics, government affairs, public policy and business operations including work with BP America, Associated Petroleum Industries of PA, and the Harrisburg law firm of McNees Wallace & Nurick.

He recently completed his third and final term as a member of the US Chamber Board of Directors where he served on the Nominating and Governance Committee as well as the Chamber’s Political Advocacy Committee. He has served on numerous boards including the United Way and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg. Gene has been named to various state commissions by both Republican and Democrat governors, including co-chair of Governor Tom Wolf’s Keystone Workforce Command Center and worked on the transition team for Governor Tom Corbett.

Gene is ranked number nine on the 2022 City and State PA’s Power 100 list of the most influential people in the public and private sectors statewide. He was also named by his peers as “The Most Effective Association Lobbyist” in the Capitol in a poll conducted by Pennsylvania Legislative Services and was included in the Pennlive/Patriot News list of the 17 most influential people in Pennsylvania politics in 2017.

He is the author of a non-fiction work on the American Civil War, A Civil War Captain and His Lady: Love, Courtship, and Combat from Fort Donelson through the Vicksburg Campaign.

Gene is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and received a Certificate in Leadership Development as a participant in the 2017 National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College. He serves on the faculty of the Gettysburg Foundation Leadership Program.