Mayor Don Plusquellic added more marketing/economic development know-how and more urban planning expertise to his cabinet when he appointed Samuel D. DeShazior as the City's deputy planning director.

DeShazior is 44 and most recently was senior director of business development with the Greater Akron Chamber and managed an economic development team working on projects ranging from industrial business expansions to international joint venture.

During his years with the Chamber, DeShazior was instrumental in coordinating economic development and urban planning initiatives throughout the region.

For many years now, the City of Akron has taken part in trade shows in Germany to help attract business from Europe to Northeastern Ohio. Sam DeShazior served as chair of the Kunstoff Fair in Düsseldorf in 2004 and developed marketing strategies for the Hanover Trade Show in 2005.

DeShazior chaired the State of Ohio's marketing effort at the National Plastics Exposition in Chicago and the Society of Automotive Engineering's World Congress in Detroit. He served as vice president and chairman of the statewide marketing committee for the Ohio Economic Development Council (now Team Ohio); Ohio's privately funded economic development marketing organization.

Sam earned a BA in public relations/marketing from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) and an MA in urban planning/urban economics from the University of Akron. He is also a graduate of the Economic Development Institute of the University of Oklahoma.