by ANDY SEVILLA
The Kyle Area Chamber of Commerce may have a new executive director as soon as July’s end, as they have dwindled down their short-list to three candidates.
The Chamber’s Board of Directors President Cale Baese said Tammie Howard from Washington, Sharon Rosche from North Carolina and Julie Snyder from California were identified as the top three candidates for the group’s top job.
Howard was most recently a program coordinator for Washington State University. She has also served as executive director for the Woodland Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of Finance at Presstige Media, Inc., according to her LinkedIn profile.
Rosche was the president at Union County Chamber of Commerce from Feb. 2011 to May 2013, and has served in the same capacity at the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce and as Vice President of Finance and Administration at the Greater Akron Chamber, her LinkedIn profile states.
Snyder is the Director of Operations at CAWA (the California, Nevada and Arizona Automotive Wholesalers Association), and is a fitness instructor at 24-hour Fitness, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has also served as a Convention and Membership Director at California Psychological Association, and as Membership Director at the Roseville Chamber of Commerce, her profile states.
A search for an executive director for Kyle’s chamber of commerce began after Ray Hernandez left that post on April 1 to take on the president position at the Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
Baese said the candidates will be brought in for an in-person interview, in mid-July, and the person selected for the position would begin as early as the end of the month or the beginning of August, depending on the candidate’s situation.
He said the new executive director’s salary would be dependent on experience and background.
Meanwhile Buda’s former Chamber of Commerce executive director, Cindy Swink, also left on April 1. The search for a new leader is not active at the moment.
The Buda Chamber’s Board of Directors President Bret Kiester said the organization has not yet listed the position, nor are they actively searching for a leader.
Kiester said J.R. Gonzales, who was initially brought into the BACC in March as a consultant facilitating new ideas and programs for area businesses, has been implementing new programs. Kiester said, “Things are going really well, right now.”
Those new programs include orientations for new chamber members, after-hours chamber mixers, and “coffee and connections,” a program aimed at helping members to connect with other chamber members outside of the monthly luncheons.
Kiester said the BACC has formed a hiring committee that will identify what the chamber is looking for in a leader, including qualities and compensation.
“We want to figure out what’s going to be best for our folks,” he said. “We want to make sure our next executive director will be someone who can continue the great work we’ve already started, and that requires patience.”
The BACC hiring committee is comprised of Kiester, Brian LaBorde, Michelle Gonzales, Laurence Radinsky and Reed Shoemaker.
