Dulles Chamber Benefits Both Business Owners, Herndon Community

HERNON, VA — Even though John Boylan officially became interim president and CEO of the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday, he's familiar with the role.

"I joined it with one the companies I was with and then I had become the president," he said. "I did that for a little over three years and then took some time off."

Boylan grew up on Staten Island, New York and attended Fairfield University in Connecticut. He then joined the U.S. Air Force, serving as a navigator on KC-135 Stratotankers. That led him to policy work in the Washington, D.C. area.

In 1993, Boylan and his family moved cross-country to Centreville, and he began working for the Defense Mapping Agency. A year later, he went to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston for the National Defense Fellows program.

"Then I came back here to work in Tysons," he said. "So, I've worked in Vienna, Tysons, the Pentagon and then out in the Herndon-Reston area, as well as Chantilly with the National Reconnaissance Office and National Imagery Mapping Agency."

Boylan's military experience and familiarity with some of the federal agencies headquartered in along the Route 28 Corridor have helped him to understand many of the concerns and issues facing local businesses, both big and small. He's also raised a family in the area, so he understands the advantages of joining the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The Dulles Chamber is built on three pillars — commerce, community and connections.

"It's those three pillars that typically will attract folks to why they want to be part of it, if you're looking to help your business, meet new people, or you want to give back to the community," Boylan said

The chamber does count a few of the larger defense contractors among its membership. While they probably don't need the chamber's help in building or selling a satellite, they are interested in what will help their present and future employees.

"They do worry about the restaurants, the hotels, the education and what's happening in the region," Boylan said. "The smaller folks need to figure out how to connect with other businesses, how to learn how to do lead shares, how to build their network, and what's happening next."

To help keep its membership informed, the Dulles Chamber launched a video series called "Metro Mondays," which airs routinely on local channels. A recent episode about Metrorail's Silver Line focused on the infrastructure around each of the stations so that chamber members could make investments and look for opportunities around those areas.

With Washington Dulles International Airport located nearby, it made sense for the chamber to form an international committee a couple of years ago to promote the area as the gateway for international clients to the D.C. region.

"Sure enough, they're international reps in both Loudoun economic development and Fairfax economic development that are focused on bringing businesses here, as well as reps from the capital in Richmond that talked about how do we take businesses here in Virginia, and help them grow businesses and opportunities in other parts of the world," Boylan said.

One unforeseen benefit of the international committee was that the chamber became proficient in using Zoom to meet with other chambers and entrepreneurs. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the chamber began hosting regular Zoom calls with its members to keep the local business community informed.

"A lot of folks point to that as an example of bolstering their confidence," Boylan said. "We ended up doing almost a daily catch up for some people. They talked about it even helping them psychologically, just being able to reach out and talk to folks and commiserate sometimes about what's happening."

Not all of the chamber's efforts are focused strictly on business matters. It also dedicates some of its efforts on helping the local community.

"When the COVID struck, as an example, we had several members come to us and said, 'Hey, we want to help, but we don't know how to,'" Boylan said. "So we created the Dulles Regional Charitable Fund. We collected money and then gave that out to some of the local charities."

The one chamber effort that many Herndon residents are probably most familiar with is Friday Night Live. The free concert series draws about 2,000 people to downtown Herndon every Friday night over the summer. Not only do local businesses benefit, but the chamber turns over the money it makes to Herndon High School and the Herndon Woman's Club, as well as other groups.

At its core, the Dulles Chamber is a place where people in business help others in business to succeed.

"It's nice to have other people that have been through the experience and learn how to do it and make that leap over the hump of those first couple of years of doing it yourself," Boylan said.

This story is part of Patch's ongoing effort to cover the business community in the Herndon area. If you are a member of the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce and would like to be profiled in an upcoming Patch story, please fill out this form. Business owners who are not chamber members but wish to be interviewed may contact the Herndon Patch reporter directly at michael.oconnell@patch.com.

This article originally appeared on the Herndon Patch