Ten area business leaders are preparing to launch new terms as SLO Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors members following an open election earlier this fall.
To introduce you to your newly elected board members, we’re featuring excerpts from three responses to the election questionnaires:
- What unique attributes do you bring to the role of SLO Chamber Board Member?
- What is a key opportunity for the Chamber to further advance one or more of its five core program areas? (creating a strong local economy, representing the interests of business with government, providing networking opportunities, promoting the community and taking political action)
- Which of the Chamber’s core values do you find most personally meaningful and why?
The Chamber board, made up of 21 members serving staggered two-year terms, is responsible for establishing policy and direction to ensure that the Chamber’s mission and vision are achieved and member needs are best served.
The new and re-elected board members join those continuing their terms: Board Chair-Elect Geri LaChance, Jeff Bower, Ryan Caldwell, Jim Duffy, Jesse Dundon, Pat Mullen, Naomi Neilson Howard, Ty Safreno, Jessica Steely, Cindy Villa and Stacey White.
Board Chair-Elect Geri LaChance will be installed at the Chamber’s Annual Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 20, along with the rest of the 2018 board.
Pat Arnold
CEO, Covelop Inc.
Unique attributes: Having been self-employed for my whole career, I look at things with a very sharp focus as to business sustainability. I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset and clear vision on how to prioritize and focus on the most critical issues while working on longer-range goals and strategic vision.
Key opportunity: We face so many changes in our community that range from how we approach retail stores to distance learning. We need to invite and be more appealing to a more diverse business and work force. We need to support the changes that are coming whatever they may be and make sure that we advocate for the strongest possible local economy.
Core value: Rise above self interest. If we all approached our daily lives, both work and personal, with this front and center in our minds, we would make major headway in many of the issues we run across daily. A new perspective and respect for the other points of view can go a long way in this world.
Sophie Boban-Doering
Co-owner, Fromagerie Sophie
Unique attributes: The passion that I have as a small local business owner and what it entails to strive as a small retail business owner. The vision to create a business model, to strive under challenging times, to be flexible to learn and grow and accept adversity creates an environment in which I continue to encounter new ideas, perspectives and never stop asking “Why Not?”
Key opportunity: To create new jobs and to encourage our youth to be strong, healthy and have the passion to learn, grow and follow their dreams. Creating a positive approach to promoting challenges and possible limitations while accepting the work ahead as we grow is key to achieving an environment that we all love and believe in.
Core value: Grit to achieve what we believe in. This value allows me to create an environment of fun, beauty, deliciousness, honesty and pure passion and to share it with our community. Love who you are, believe in who you are, and you will never falter.
Michael Bradley
CEO, California Mid-State Fair
Unique attributes: My experience in public event management on a national level provides for a unique perspective to a broad base of business categories from agriculture to the arts and from technology to retail. My position with the California Mid State fair allows the Chamber to engage in significant advances in the methods we choose to celebrate all things that are meaningful, valuable and unique to the Central Coast.
Key opportunity: The promotion of the community. Our smart growth will be dependent on a strong local economy, which is enhanced greatly by tourism. The dynamic beauty, climate and health of our coastal environment can be a mega force for continuous expansion of Visit SLO and taking responsible advantage of this special place.
Core value: Grit to Achieve What We Believe In. I find the greatest meaning in “We aren’t afraid to make tough choices and put in the work for the things we believe in.” This is a basic value of the farming and ranching community from which I came.
Dave Cox
Vice President of Operations, AMF Media Group
Unique attributes: My wife Maggie and I have owned a small business here for 28 years. I’ve worked with hundreds of local businesses and organizations and have a first-person perspective on our shared challenges and opportunities. I’m in an industry defined by technology and creativity, lightning-fast change and innovation, and I believe my experience can be of value in shaping the next-gen Chamber.
Key opportunity: Continued growth in member participation. Providing more information and education to members through expanded digital channels will be a key to accomplishing this. Webinar offerings or live feeds of events could serve to expand the Chamber’s reach and ability to recruit increased member interest and participation.
Core value: Grit to achieve what we believe in. The collective willingness to stand behind decisions, to direct resources to those worthwhile ideas regardless of opposition, and not succumb to bitter, divisive populists’ ideas that inhibit our ability to find common ground. It supports our need to work together and collaborate while not forgetting the values we hold dear.
Monica Grant
CEO, San Luis Obispo County YMCA
Unique attributes: I like to think big but am also pragmatic and very conscious about preserving the quality of life that our beautiful county still offers. I have had the experience of feeling out of place in some of the communities I have lived, so I have great compassion for those who may not feel seen or included and a passion to help support ways to make organizations and communities inclusive and welcoming to others.
Key opportunity: Our community is at a tipping point in finding the balance between growth and preserving the wonderful and beautiful aspects that drew most of us here in the first place. This region is blessed to innovative people who could help our Chamber create a vision and plan that could be a model in the U.S. for other communities trying to grow “well.”
Core value: Build Relationships, Rise Above Self and Connect Diverse Perspectives. We are more willing to enter into genuine and trusting relationships when we focus on a higher goal as opposed to self interests and are able and willing to reach across the community to engage all the rich demographics and perspectives that exist in our community. This is how communities get stronger and better.
Ben Higgins
Director of Agricultural Operations, Hearst Corporation
Unique attributes: A broad array of business, policy, and public service experiences. I’ve been on all sides of the curtain, and I’m thrilled to both be a part of the SLO Chamber—in the community where I grew up and my family’s been for more than 100 years—and to help improve the health of the business environment right here at home.
Key opportunity: Making the SLO Chamber a more powerful regional voice on behalf of businesses of all types. Many issues—Diablo Canyon, pension reform, affordable housing, land use and conservation—cross jurisdictions and demand a coordinated regional response. The SLO Chamber is uniquely positioned to expand into these realms of political engagement.
Core value: Rise Above Self Interest. Whether we’re in a committee, board or executive meeting, we’re evaluating and deciding what’s best for our community, our members and our organization. No decision is made with one individual, business, or even industry in mind. It’s all about making SLO a better place to live work, and grow a business.
Alan Iftiniuk
President/CEO, French Hospital Medical Center
Unique attributes: The success of French Hospital can be traced back to my ability to build relationships, collaborate with others and strive toward a common goal. More than 30 years in healthcare, working in various leadership capacities, has given me a background in business but also an understanding of the human side.
Key opportunity: To promote the community—whether to visitors, potential businesses or future Chamber members—it is essential that we tell the story of how well-rounded we are. Top priorities include our environment, a strong K12 educational system, top-notch community college and state university and support offered to businesses through the Chamber.
Core value: Target Amazing. My career has been spent improving quality–from technology and equipment to the more intangible areas of treating people with respect and understanding their needs. Improving quality has to happen first, before there can be any real success. If you have quality and customer satisfaction, growth will follow. The emphasis cannot be on making money; that is the result of doing things right.
Beth Marino
Partner, Glick Haupt Marino LLP
Unique attributes: As a business transactions attorney, I have been trained to look at issues and find solutions that work given the facts and rules that are applicable. I also bring my experience as a former chair of the Chamber board.
Key opportunity: The Chamber has important role to play in the housing sector and promoting the interests of business owners to add affordable workforce housing within the community. Focus on regional collaboration within the county and employing the lessons learned from the Boulder trip (2017 edition). Updating the Chamber’s economic vision document will be instrumental in laying a robust and thoughtful plan for economic development for the next 5-10 years.
Core value: Grit to Achieve What We Believe In. It is not easy to be a leader. You must be brave and sometimes take unpopular positions. The important part is to have a well-thought-out plan and the grit to make it happen.
Hillary Trout
Tax Manager, Glenn Burdette
Unique attributes: A strong financial and economic perspective. I also have a history with the community that goes back a lifetime and have seen ideas rise and succeed as well as rise and fall. This background coupled with a passion for service and community, not to mention a voice to advocate for issues, are attributes I have worked a lifetime to achieve and contribute back to the community.
Key opportunity: Uniting the numerous stakeholders we serve and represent. This is done through government interaction and advocacy, connecting people and resources and being informed and educated and sharing that with those around us. Uniting a community is the greatest accomplishment we can achieve
Core value: Rise Above Self Interest. All around us are examples of self-interest-driven initiatives gone awry, which have far-reaching repercussions and impacts. On the other end of the spectrum are examples of higher-reaching initiatives that consider ethics, responsibilities, relationships, and beyond, which often have very positive and impactful results in the community and on individuals.
Deborah Wulff
Assistant Superintendent/Vice-President Academic Affairs, Cuesta College
Unique attributes: A voice for Cuesta College. I am committed to collaborating with other organizations to achieve new opportunities for the college, businesses and community in building a strong local workforce. This also includes advocating for diversity within our workforce and finding ways to increase inclusivity in the work that we do.
Key opportunity: We have the ability to ask what is possible in developing a strong local economy by means of new connections within the county and collaborations within industry and education. Developing these connections and collaborations could have an impact on the economic vitality of the region in the future.
Core value: Target Amazing. I strive for continuous improvement and driving positive change in my leadership role. We live in times of continual change within our country, state and community. If we do not move forward and strive to be ahead, we will be left behind. Embracing change and thoughtful planning can lead to excellence and innovation for both my college and the community.