Meet Mike Watters
Chamber Board President, 2025-2027
“I am passionate about helping 2SLGBTQIA+ people survive and thrive in a business environment that doesn’t always welcome them. We devote so much time and effort to our professional lives; we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be ourselves in business.
As your president, I want to harness my experience in management, business strategy, marketing, and customer experience to strengthen ORPIB’s foundations and build for the future.”
Mike (they/he) joined the board in 2023, working on the mentoring program. A resident of Salem, they are passionate about ORPIB's statewide expansion and supporting LGBTQ+ businesses in every corner of the state. Mike previously served as a commissioner for the City of Salem Human Rights Commission and was the chair of the city's LGBTQIA+ Intersectional Rights Task Force.
Mike is the customer experience director for policyholders at SAIF, Oregon's not-for-profit workers' compensation provider. In this role, they manage customer feedback and research, and translate insights into action to improve the customer experience. Mike previously led SAIF’s communication and design department from 2013 to 2021. Prior to joining SAIF, Mike edited and designed publications for businesses and organizations in education, health care, tourism, entertainment, and the arts. They are a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.