Ward named state chamber Annual Dinner keynote

WILMINGTON — The Delaware State Chamber of Commerce announced Wednesday that Rod Ward, III, the president and CEO of the Wilmington-based CSC, will be the keynote speaker at its 188th Annual Dinner to be held Jan. 13, 2025.

The Annual Dinner is the largest of the state chamber’s annual events, bringing more than 1,000 business leaders, dignitaries and elected officials to the Chase Center on the Riverfront. The evening’s program will also include the 75th presentation of the Josiah Marvel Cup award in honor of the memory of Josiah Marvel, who reorganized the modern-day state chamber and was its first president under the DSCC name.

CSC, a Delaware-based company with an international presence, offers business administration and compliance solutions for businesses at any stage in their life cycle. Today, the company has more than 8,500 employees in more than 140 jurisdictions, all supported with a core team in Wilmington. Hundreds of thousands of companies and organizations rely on CSC for its services as they work to navigate regulations. The company recently celebrated its 125th anniversary of being the self-billed business behind the business.

Ward stepped up in the CEO role in 2010, after years of serving on CSC’s board for more than 15 years before that. He can trace his family’s history through CSC as it was founded by his great-grandfather Christopher Ward and Josiah Marvel as a way to simplify the process for businesses to incorporate in Delaware and how to comply with its laws.

“I’m so pleased to be addressing the 188th Annual Dinner of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, made even more special by the fact that I’ll be there to congratulate the 75th Marvel Cup winner,” Ward said in a prepared statement. “Both of these men [Christopher Ward and Marvel] shared an entrepreneurial spirit that lives on today in CSC and in the companies that prosper in Delaware.”

In the first decade of his leadership, Ward has opened a new global headquarters off Lancaster Pike and has led CSC to triple its size and expand into new international markets. Outside the company, Ward serves as co-chair of the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, a public-private partnership for economic development established by Gov. John Carney. He also serves on the advisory board of both the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware and Leadership Delaware.

“I’m honored to share the story of CSC and how we take care of business for companies around the globe that rely on us to create the competitive edge that lets them perform at their best,” Ward added. “We also take care of each other, as well as focus on leaving the communities where we live and work better off tomorrow than they are today.”

Registration for the 188th Annual Dinner can be found online at https://web.dscc.com/atlas/events/3171/details. For more information, contact Kelly Basile at kbasile@dscc.com or (302) 576-6564.