Chris Bechle Megan Blakeney

Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships, United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes

Chris Bechle is a Rochester native working as Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships for United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes. In his professional role, he serves as a community connector that helps bridge the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. At United Way, Chris is the staff lead for the Emerging Leaders Society, comprised of some of the region’s most active young professionals looking to make a difference in their communities.

In addition to his role with United Way, Chris is also a lacrosse coach, and coaches at every age level from kindergarten through twelfth grade. He enjoys the competitive aspect of coaching, but truly loves the opportunity to teach life lessons to young men through the game of lacrosse.

Chris graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development from Binghamton University, where he also served as two-time team captain of the men’s lacrosse team. After Binghamton, Chris earned his master’s degree in Sport Management from SUNY Cortland.

When not working or coaching, Chris enjoys playing golf and going to see live music. He lives in Fairport with his wife, Paige and mini Australian Shepard, Peggy.

Associate Manager, Systems Engineering, Tactical

Communications, L3Harris Technologies

Megan Blakeney is an Associate Manager of Systems Engineering in the tactical communication sector of L3Harris. Megan leads a team of Systems Engineers who architect, test, and demonstrate Tactical Communications Systems for L3Harris’ International customers and is the point of contact for RF propagation analysis work coming into the department. More recently Megan has been engaged with the international sales teams and business development to plan and staff customer demonstrations to capture new business.

Megan is the chair for the L3Harris Employee Resource Group, WE3: Women Who Strive for Empowering, Enhancing and Encouraging Other Women, where she is responsible for the planning, budgeting, and execution of events in support of the group’s pillars; Community Engagement, Professional and Personal Development, Member Engagement, STEM Engagement. She works with senior leaders inside and outside the organization to discuss and create strategies to develop and advance females in STEM and in leadership. Megan was an integral part of planning the first-ever diversity fair in 2022 to encourage employee engagement and celebrate our differences. In October of 2022, Megan represented L3Harris in Houston at the SWE conference networking with other women and looking for new talent. Megan received her dual B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology graduating Summa Cum Laude.

Megan has received several L3Harris awards including the 2020 Business Development Circle of Excellence Award, June 2022 WE3 corporate impact award, and an Ascend Award for her execution of the SOFIC TechEx2021 Waveform Demonstration. In collaboration with her team, she had a patent filed in 2022 – Systems and Methods for Autonomously Adjustable Aerial Vehicle Antenna.

In her free time, Megan enjoys playing with her dogs Roo and Maui, playing in a billiards league, and attending Buffalo Bills games with her husband Tim.