Chamber board plans to announce new president Tuesday
By Hank Beckman For The Sun November 19, 2012 3:30PM
From left, Dr. Cathy Subber, 2013 Chair of the Board, Shane Beard, 2012 Chair of the Board, Mayor George Pradel, and Mike Evans joke around a table as Evans is introduced as Naperville's new Chamber of Commerce President and CEO at City Hall on Tuesday, November 20, 2012. | Brian Powers~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: November 20, 2012 11:13PM
The Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce is one step closer to having a new president and CEO. Along with approving eight new members to its Board of Directors on Monday, the board appears set to name its new president and CEO as early as Tuesday morning.
The nominees were unanimously approved by a floor vote at the chamber’s annual membership lunch at the Marriot Chicago/Naperville.
One of the nominees, Thomas Kallay, community relations director for NICOR Gas, also will serve as board chair for the coming year.
“I hope I bring a more corporate perspective to the chamber,” Kallay said after the lunch.
Kallay noted that the chamber serves small businesses very well, but he thinks more can be done to highlight corporate businesses and their needs.
The other incoming board members are Karyn Glogowski, vice president of Delta Dental; Kimberly Rogers, business relations director of De Sio, Franzen and Associates; Deena Giordano Ullom, attorney at Nyberg Cassioppi; Adam Russo, Edgewood Clinical Services; Mike Squire, North Central College; Mike Stengel, Sequoia General Contracting; and Tom Okarma, of Vantage Point.
The new board members begin three-year terms of service Jan. 1.
Glogowski noted that, with the pending changes coming to health care because of the Affordable Care Act, she could bring an important perspective to the chamber’s work.
“I’m very exited,” she said, stressing that a prime goal would be to expand the chamber’s reach and increase membership. “I also want to make sure we continue to increase the value the chamber brings to members.”
Ullom brings a legal perspective to the board, especially in the area of employment in business.
“I’m interested in the HR (human resource) function of business and development,” she said. “Especially as it applies to actual chamber employees. If they are happy doing their jobs, it can bring in more business.”
Rogers hopes to broaden the chamber’s base membership.
“I would hope for more diversity interaction,” she said.
Rogers also wants the chamber to reach out to nonprofits beyond the Naperville area.
“The are so many worthy organizations out there,” she said.
Working with those organizations and other community-based, nonprofits was the theme of the featured speaker, Bea Boccalandro, president of VeraWorks, a consulting firm that helps private sector organizations design and maintain their community involvement programs.
Boccalandro noted two specific companies that employed innovative methods to serve the community.
The first, Patagonia Clothing, whose sales personnel offer a customer pledge to sign saying they will repair the garment if necessary or recycle it by selling it.
“They sell customers on their environmental goals,” she said.
The second involved Fed Ex drivers in Florida who help in the fight against invasive species of snakes that preys on native birds of the region.
While the drivers don’t actually capture the snakes, some are voluntarily trained to spot them and alert nonprofits or government agencies that deal with the problem.
Boccalandro stressed that service-based tasks performed by the private sector not only spread good works throughout a community, but also made employees more engaged in their jobs.
As for the chamber’s pending nomination of a new president, Interim President Tami Andrew said her understanding was that the Board of Directors would announce their choice Tuesday morning.
She did acknowledge that the choice had been narrowed down to three candidates and she was one of them.
