June 09, 2026
Content sponsored by
Provided Courtesy/DVIRC
DVIRC President & CEO Chris Scafario delivers remarks at Homecoming 250’s Innovation Pavilion at Cherry Street Pier in October, 2025.
Chris Scafario didn’t set out to become one of the region’s most influential voices in advanced manufacturing. But his path, from growing a family beverage business to leading global consumer product lines and eventually rising through the ranks at the DVIRC, has equipped him with a rare blend of commercial discipline, operational know-how, and relentless execution focus that is now powering Philadelphia’s manufacturing resurgence.
As President and CEO of DVIRC, Scafario has transformed the organization into a strategic command center for small and mid-sized manufacturers across the Delaware Valley. Under his leadership, DVIRC relocated its headquarters to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 2025, deliberately positioning itself at the heart of the city’s maritime and defense industrial ecosystem.
The move was more than symbolic. It created a convening platform where manufacturers, universities, prime contractors, and government partners can move from ideas to implementation at speed. “Manufacturing is not simply about making things,” Scafario says. “It underpins maritime dominance, aerospace leadership, energy security, AI deployment, and high-wage economic mobility.”
That belief, rooted in two decades of hands-on experience, drives everything DVIRC does. His work is also grounded in a clear operating conviction: economic security is national security.
Scafario’s career began in his family’s beverage business, where he helped grow private-label operations dramatically through smart product development, branding, and sales execution—all while earning his MBA from Thomas Jefferson University. He went on to manage multimillion-dollar product lines for global consumer giants including Cadbury, Schweppes, and Philips, sharpening his expertise in strategy, marketing, operations, and delivering measurable results.
“That commercial background armed me with a unique perspective. I bring the same accountability and performance mindset I honed in consumer goods to the complex world of industrial support; helping companies improve margins, adopt new technologies, qualify for high-value supply chains, and create good-paying jobs,” Scafario explains.
He joined DVIRC in 2007 as Marketing Manager, initially as a third-party consultant, and quickly built the organization’s Business Growth Services practice. Over the next two decades he rose through key roles: leading consulting operations, serving as Chief Operating Officer, and President; ultimately appointed CEO by DVIRC’s Board of Directors in late 2023.
One of Scafario’s first major initiatives after stepping into the CEO role was architecting and rolling out the ambitious 2030 Manufacturing Moonshot: a comprehensive operational framework designed to accelerate technology adoption, strengthen supply chains, modernize workforce systems, and drive plant-floor execution across Pennsylvania’s IRC Network.
“The solution is relentless, purpose-driven execution, not incremental reform,” Scafario emphasizes.
Chris Scafario, President & CEO of DVIRC.
Pennsylvania ranks as the sixth-largest manufacturing state in the nation, generating over $110 billion annually. The Delaware Valley already supports roughly 20% of the Columbia-class submarine supply chain. Scafario sees these assets not as legacy strengths, but as foundations for the next American industrial chapter where university research, production capacity, AI, and workforce pipelines converge.
Outside the office, Scafario’s leadership style shows in his personal life. A longtime collector car enthusiast, he founded High Octane South Jersey in 2012, a charitable group that has mobilized hundreds of car enthusiasts from the Philadelphia and New York metro areas for large-scale toy and gift drives supporting children and families. The organization partners with groups like Deborah Heart and Lung Center and has distributed thousands of toys through Cars & Coffee events and community rallies.
That same ability to convene people around a shared purpose is emblematic of DVIRC’s work at the Navy Yard that ripples through the region.
Scafario is clear-eyed about the stakes. He looks forward to working with small and mid-sized manufacturers, along with state and federal stakeholders, “to make Philadelphia and its surrounding communities the region of choice for the design, construction, and commercialization of next generation life sustaining, enriching, and protecting goods, services, and technologies.”
Regions that execute with discipline on technology, supply chains, workforce, and infrastructure will lead the next manufacturing renaissance. Philadelphia, with its historic industrial DNA, world-class universities, and strategic port assets, is uniquely positioned to be one of those leaders.
“Strength is not declared,” he asserts. “Strength is manufactured.”
