Last week, the Sacramento Metro Chamber introduced their new young professionals program—Metro EDGE. With a vision to support and advance the creative and innovative growth of the Sacramento region, the program will provide Sacramento with a fresh, robust group of business people dedicated to enhancing their community.

The newest young professionals group to hit the Sacramento region, Metro EDGE held an invitation-only soft launch event July 16 to share the vision and mission of the organization and recruit local members.

“Metro EDGE complements our hugely successful Leadership Sacramento program. It's an opportunity for our young professionals to share our community and significant regional attributes with their peers,” said Linda Cutler, chair of the Metro Chamber Board and vice president Corporate Communications for GenCorp, Inc. “It will also help cultivate the Metro Chamber’s next generation of civic, business and entrepreneurial leaders. The synergy between Metro EDGE, Leadership Sacramento and our Metro Chamber Foundation is sure to be powerful.”

Metro EDGE—a clever acronym of the group’s founding principles: Engage, Develop, Give, Empower—is determined to find creative ways to catapult the Sacramento region into a stronghold of business, social and cultural opportunities that rival other major metropolitan hubs in the U.S., according to its chair, Autumn Heacox of Sierra View General Contractor.

“What’s different about Metro EDGE is that we have a strong sense of community and a drive to make Sacramento a better place,” Heacox said. “We are a group of generation X and Y professionals that prides itself on uniting with One Voice to offer a fresh, unique perspective on Sacramento’s most pressing issues.”

Founding sponsor of Metro EDGE is Drexel University Center for Graduate Studies, the region’s newest higher education institution offering master’s degree programs for the busy professional. Drexel is committed to the development of leaders in the Sacramento region and found Metro EDGE to be on the mark with their goals.

The official Metro Edge launch will be Sept. 9, 2009, celebrating all things local and One Voice for a generation. For details, visit metro-edge.org or contact Ingrid Nurse Foster, vice president of communications for the Metro Chamber, 916-321-9145 or ifoster@metrochamber.org