The Tribune

The Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce (GBCC) will swear in its new president and 2019 executive board at their annual installation ceremony to be held tomorrow night.

KP Turnquest, deputy prime minister and former GBCC president, will be the guest speaker and help induct the new board.

Gregory Laroda, who works for Buckeye Bahamas as its senior director of government relations, and a former chamber board member in 2017-2018, will take the role of president for this year.

He said he wants to dismiss the perception that the chamber only works for large companies like his employer, and those who are licensees of the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).

“Our plan is to grow our membership to reach businesses outside of the Port Area and work closely with more small businesses,” said Mr Laroda. “The chamber ‘Help Desk’ is a great resource to help small business owners, and we want to work on helping these businesses grow. We all need to become more social media savvy, tech savvy and national in our scope.”

Mr Laroda added that he wants the GB Chamber to have input into government reforms and policies that will affect the way Bahamians conduct business in this nation.

His fellow board members are first vice-president, Daniel Lowe; second vice-president, Daniel Romence; treasurer, Ormand Saunders; and secretary, Ralph Hepburn. Other directors are Lesley Davis-Baptista; Lawrence Palmer; Antoine Brooks; Carmel Churchill; Dennis Knowles; Dave McGregor; and Christine Van Der Linde. Serving second terms as directors are Kiara Jones, Charles Pratt and Adrian Carey.

The 12 new board members were elected during the chamber’s annual elections in November 2018. It now has just over 300 registered members. The GBCC’s executive director, Mercynth Ferguson, said: “We have a diverse group of business executives who have been elected to the new board. Everyone is ready to get to work, and they have put together an ambitious agenda, but one I feel is attainable with the support of the wider business community.”

Tickets for the nearly sold-out event are available at the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce office on South Mall Drive for $60.