IBX chief grapples with gun violence and in-person work as he takes on a new role with the Chamber of Commerce

Gregory E. Deavens is optimistic about the city’s new administration.

The CEO of Independence Health Group, which owns health insurer Independence Blue Cross, thinks Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s vision to make Philadelphia a “safer, cleaner, and greener city” “will help us to attract more people to the city, into the region, and to really help make sure that we’re creating economic opportunity.”

In addition to leading one the city’s largest employers, Deavens will soon take on a new role. In October, he’ll begin a two-year term leading the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

The chamber, which was founded in 1801, serves the 11-county, tristate Philadelphia region, and convenes business, government, and civic leaders throughout the year to drive economic growth.

After the announcement of his new role with the chamber, The Inquirer asked Deavens about some of the biggest issues facing the region’s economy, including the return to in-person work, what the business community can do to address gun violence, and what needs to be done to prepare for events coming to Philadelphia in 2026.

The interview has been condensed for brevity and clarity.

It’s important for businesses across the region that feel like they have an environment where their employees still feel safe and protected.

Two things I’d say we have to work on as a community: We have to create an economic environment where there are more job opportunities available so that people are more inclined to put the guns down … and they have a job that they can go to where they can earn a living wage and sustain themselves, and sustain families. I think that’s critically important.

I think also for young people who are in communities that have been really ravaged by violence, [we need] to create a greater sense of hope that they know that there are things that they can do, that there are career opportunities that will allow them to hopefully escape communities where gun violence is the norm.

I have not heard of any business that has decided to not come to Philly because of safety. I’m aware of certain businesses that have closed certain locations because of safety concerns.

We have to get more officers on the street. We have to make sure that individuals that are found guilty of criminal behavior, that they’re prosecuted as appropriate under the law. The people that are struggling with issues of addiction that are leading them into criminal behavior — [we need to ensure] that they’re getting access to the care and the resources they need to move into recovery, and overall just make this city safer, cleaner, and greener.

That phrase, it’s simple, it’s easy to remember, but it really is a perfect description of the things that we need to do together. As a business community, there’s tremendous enthusiasm for and support for our new mayor, and the plan and the visions that she’s put together.

At Independence, we have a very distinctive culture in our business. That culture has for many, many years relied on establishing great working relationships and great collaboration and work around ideas to drive innovation. Those things for many, many decades were things that we always did in person.

There is a level of inefficiency in remote work in terms of getting through relatively simple issues. If I wanted to have a conversation with someone a year ago … I had to schedule a call with them. … Now that people are back in the office with a pretty good frequency, I can walk down the hall and have a five-minute conversation and get to an answer.

It is also [about] developing the next generation of leaders. We need to spend some time in person with individuals to see how they operate in meetings, to see how they present ideas, how they make the case for new concepts that they want to drive within the organization. How do they build relationships with other leaders around the community? All those things require a level of in-person interaction.

A lot of organizations have done different things. They’ve changed their cafeterias. They’ve added additional services in the buildings to encourage workers to come back. I think there are a lot of tools in the tool chest that companies can use to help … smooth the transition for people coming back to their offices or to even incentivize people to come back for the good of the businesses.

I’m not a Philadelphia native, but what I’ve learned is that Philadelphia is very much a relationship city. It’s hard to get things done around this city if you don’t have good relationships. It’s hard to do that if you’re at home all the time.

We’re creatures of habit. I think when people get back into the habit of coming into the office, whether their organization requires three, four, or five days a week [in person], I think they’ll get accustomed to that again, just as we were accustomed to it before the pandemic.

We need to think about our transportation infrastructure, particularly for the World Cup. Many of the fans are coming from large cities from around the world where they rely on public transportation. We have to make sure that our transit system is ready to get them to and from the places that they need to get to.

Part of that may require city employers to do something different in terms of having their folks come into the offices on the days where there are those big events taking place, so that more of our visitors can do that. I’ve talked to people from other cities that have had large events like that and they will not require people to come into the office on some of those days when they know a big event is transpiring.

We have to get leaders from across the region, across the business community, sitting down with our partners in City Hall and other areas of government to really make sure that we are aligned and we’re coordinated on what we need to do to make those events as successful as possible.

As a business chamber and as we have a new commerce director in the city, I think it would be important for us to think about this not only as us hosting these really important events, but it’s also a huge opportunity for us to showcase this city and this region as a place for people to start businesses, to relocate businesses — if they’re from outside of the U.S., to open up new operations in the U.S. here in the Greater Philadelphia region.

This is a huge opportunity for us to showcase the region and it’s gonna require a significant level of collaboration and coordination to make sure that we put our best foot forward.