Meet the 2026 CEO Global Chapter of the Year Finalists

Iona University

Iona's chapter runs on a simple line: entrepreneurship is a mindset, not a major. Twenty-five active members turned that into programming the whole campus showed up for, including the CEO Carnival, the Autumn Avenue Pop-Up and Bullseye with the CEO Club.

The standout this year was the chapter's orientation. Most chapters treat it as a box to check. Iona promoted it hard, and the reel it produced trended on Instagram with more than 300,000 views and 11,000 likes.

The chapter also teamed up with the Council of Academic Affairs and Special Interests on a Women's History Month pop-up shop, threw a salsa night with the dance team Bailando con Sazón that doubled as a vendor market, and worked with the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation on a brand-building challenge where students built landing pages for their own brands. Revenue came from baked goods, raffles and helping student vendors sell on campus.

Iona is no stranger to the awards stage. The chapter won Outstanding Marketing and Social Media in 2023 and Outstanding Chapter Revenue Generating Initiative in 2024.

Rowan University

Rowan CEO hosted 25 events this year for a chapter of more than 75 active members, and its weekly sessions regularly drew 30 or more people.

The engine behind that attendance is a new Guest Speaker Series and Student Founders Panels. The series brought in speakers like Wendy Verna, founder and president of Octo Design Group, to talk branding, client acquisition and leadership. The panels bring back recent Rowan graduates who are building companies now, people who sat in the same classrooms a year or two ago.

That alumni bench is deep. Nickolas Nastasi won the CEO Global Pitch Competition in 2022 with For You Medical. Harrison Nastasi won it in 2023 with Bobica Bars. Nick Denzer took second in 2025. All three come back to mentor current members.

The chapter's officers also pitched university stakeholders for conference travel money and secured $10,848, up more than 50% from last year's $7,000. That's on top of a $3,000 operating budget and steady support from the Rowan Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

East Carolina University

When the current leadership took over at ECU, the chapter had 10 active members. It now has 163.

The growth came from one idea: put members in the room early. This year that meant sitting across from four current and former ECU trustees, including Rich Balot, who started Victra as a freshman and built it into a $3 billion company, and Matt Crisp, who sold eVestment to Nasdaq for $705 million. The chapter opened those meetings to other student organizations instead of keeping them to itself.

The flagship was the Blueprint to Success Panel at the Isley Innovation Hub, featuring Lynn Lane, Fortune 100 sales executive Richard Twilley and Duplin Winery's Dave Fussell Jr., vice chair of the ECU Board of Trustees. The panelists were asked to skip the highlight reel and talk about the setbacks. Twilley's line, "don't press to impress," still comes up in chapter meetings.

Members put it to use. One won ECU's Gene T. Aman Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge and more than $40,000. Others landed internships at CAPTRUST, Celonis, Oracle and a private equity firm. On ECU's giving day, a trustee sponsored the chapter and it outraised every other College of Business student organization.

ECU's leaders are familiar faces at CEO. Roz Burgess was named 2025 Chapter President of the Year, and Brady Hillhouse won the same award in 2019.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

UTRGV is the defending champion. The chapter won Chapter of the Year in 2025 and came back with the busiest calendar of any finalist, 33 events for 35 active members.

The one that matters most to the chapter is its annual toy drive, which pulls in volunteers well beyond the membership. Members also toured Walmart, local businesses and the Port of Brownsville, and joined engineering organizations on a trip to the Toyota plant in San Antonio. A beach cleanup with Greek life and other student groups rounded out the community work.

The chapter asks members for feedback after workshops and meetings and adjusts based on what it hears. The goal, in the chapter's words, is for members to feel like family, not just names on a roster.

UTRGV has a long run at CEO. It won Outstanding Marketing and Social Media in 2024, and adviser Derek Abrams was named James H. Hunter Chapter Advisor of the Year in 2022.

SUNY Plattsburgh

SUNY Plattsburgh is the smallest chapter on the list, with 16 active members. It ran 13 programs anyway.

The biggest was the annual Business Plan Poster Competition last November. Eleven student teams presented to four local business professionals for $500 in prizes and trophies. Eight members also competed at Launch Day at SUNY Canton, and Plattsburgh students were on the first, second and third place teams.

The chapter leans on partners to stretch its reach. It runs joint meetings with the Accounting and Finance Club, hosted a program with Career Development Center Director Tobi Hay, and has taken members to MicroBird and Ben and Jerry's. Bottle and can drives, a Chipotle fundraiser and Student Association funding keep it going.

Being at a small school is part of the pitch. The chapter knows the local business owners by name, and they show up to judge.

The Chapters That Came Before

Only a handful of schools have held this title. Bryant University and Abilene Christian University have each won it twice. UTRGV is the only finalist this year that has won it before, which means four of these five chapters are chasing a first.

See every past honoree, from Chapter President of the Year to the CEO Hall of Fame, on the CEO Awards page.

Announcement Saturday Morning

The 2026 Chapter of the Year is announced Saturday, Nov. 7, at 9 a.m., just before the conference's live podcast keynote. Steve McGarry, host of The Exit by Flippa, joins Rebecca White, host of The EnFactor, for a live recording on entrepreneurship through acquisition in the age of AI.

Get there early. You'll want a seat for both.

	Fill the Sandpiper. Thursday at 4 p.m. on the third floor of the Wyndham. Five chapters, 45 minutes.
	Take notes for your own chapter. Every finalist is sharing what worked this year. Steal the good ideas.

	Find the finalists all weekend. Ask them how they ran their biggest event. Most will tell you exactly.
	Be there at 9 a.m. Saturday. The announcement leads straight into the live podcast keynote.