JAX Chamber announced Friday that BB&T Market President Debbie Buckland will serve as its 2019 chair.
Buckland serves as the treasurer of the chamber’s board of directors, which chose her to succeed 2018 Chair John Peyton, president of Gate Petroleum Co. and a former Jacksonville mayor.
Buckland will serve as chair-elect in 2018.
“The chamber is on the forefront of what is happening in our city and leads on important issues,” Buckland said in a news release.
The chamber said that as chair-elect, Buckland will lead the 2018 Leadership Trip and the chamber’s board of governors, a larger group of business leaders that helps to implement policy and priorities set by the board of directors.
Buckland has more than 30 years of experience in financial services and was named BB&T market president in 2014.
She is a graduate of Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, with a bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics and Philosophy.
She is immediate past chair of Downtown Vision Inc. and past chair of the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center and American Cancer Society.
Buckland has served on the board of the YMCA of Florida’s First Coast and is a member of the Wolfson Children’s Hospital Women’s Board, Jacksonville Women’s Network and Women’s Giving Alliance.
She is on the United Way of Northeast Florida Campaign Cabinet.
The remainder of the 2018 JAX Chamber board of directors will be completed this year.
Buckland becomes the fifth woman to serve as chair of the chamber since its beginning in 1901 as the Jacksonville Board of Trade.
The first woman to lead the chamber was hospital executive Carol Thompson in 2001, followed by lawyer Lynn Pappas in 2002, banker Kelly Madden in 2010 and hospital executive Audrey Moran in 2016.