MASON, Mich. — Doug Klein has announced his plans to retire as executive director of the Mason Area Chamber of Commerce in October 2019. He is the longest serving executive director of the MACC, a 47-year old business association and community organization with over 300 businesses and organizations as members.
Doug Klein first got involved with the Mason Area Chamber in early 1996 as adjunct staff for one semester through a program of his employer Lansing Community College. He soon became a Chamber volunteer, committee and board member, and eventually the Chamber’s volunteer president in 2000. In April 2005, Doug Klein became the executive director of the Mason Area Chamber of Commerce.
His involvement with Mason Chamber activities was recognized by the MACC with their President’s Award in 2004 and their Special Recognition Award in 2013. He has also served on committees of the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and has been a LRCC Ambassador in past years.
In August 2018, Doug Klein retired from Lansing Community College as an adjunct professor of public relations, communication, business, and marketing. In his 28 years at LCC, Doug Klein earned recognition on four separate occasions as a “Salute to Excellence” and “Employee Recognition” award winner – twice individually and twice again as part of a team effort. He also served as an academic advisor and administrator for the College.
A Mason resident since 1978, Doug Klein lives in town with Peggy, his wife of 45 years. She is a retired Stockbridge Community Schools teacher. Their daughter Anne lives in Mason with her husband Nick and their three children Sam, Adele, and Griffin. Their son Peter also lives in Mason with his wife Rhiannon and their daughter Charlie.
After retirement from MACC, he plans to continue consulting for a limited and select number of businesses and organizations through his one-person PR and marketing firm, Star Associates. Doug Klein specializes in planning and implementing marketing, management, education, and communication programs for small businesses and educational institutions. He is also expert in coordinating public communication strategies for community organizations and associations.
Going beyond Doug Klein’s work activities, his other volunteer activities have included membership in the Friends of the Mason Library, board member of the Mason Farmers Market Association, and current member and president of the Mason Area Historical Society. He has also been involved with the Mason Promise Scholarship, the Relay for Life, Sun Dried Music Festival, Ingham County Fair Foundation, and other community groups. He plans to continue some of those activities after retirement.
As a City of Mason volunteer, he produces and maintains community announcements on their “Channel 21” PEG channel and was recognized by the City for that contribution with a mayoral proclamation in 2010. He was named to the City’s Historic District Commission in late 2018. In April 2019, he received another mayoral proclamation as the City’s Arbor Day honoree. More recently, he also became a member of the Mason Lions Club and was named the club’s “Lion of the Year” in May of 2019.
A member of the Public Relations Society of America since 1983, and 2003 President of the Central Michigan Chapter of PRSA, he holds the prestigious APR designation (Accreditation in Public Relations) from the Society. In 2005, Doug Klein was awarded with their highest local honor, the PACE Maker of the Year. He was inducted into the American Marketing Association’s national honorary Alpha Mu Alpha in 2012. In 2010, he also became a Certified Tourism Ambassador though the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau, who recognized him as CTA of the Year in 2017.
Continuing a strong history of community service activities, Doug Klein served for over a decade on the editorial board of the Greater Lansing Business Monthly magazine. Doug Klein was LCC’s representative on the Board of Partners for the Closing the Digital Gap Program, headquartered at the Black Child and Family Institute in Lansing for many years. A graduate of Lansing Everett High School and former president of the Lansing Junior Board of Education, he has been a volunteer for the Commission for Lansing Schools Success and has been a Junior Achievement program volunteer.
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