Chamber
CEO to Leave Post |
By Jorge Casuso
September 5 -- Jim Lynch,
who has been the Chamber of Commerce’s
CEO for less than one year, will be
leaving his post, chamber officials
announced Tuesday.
Officials declined to provide details about Lynch’s
departure, and Lynch did not return a phone call
for comment by press deadline.
“We decided to go in different directions,”
said Chamber President Tom Larmore, a local real
estate attorney. “The job was not what he
thought it was. It was not a good match.”
Brenda Katz, who ran Simonson Mercedes before
it was sold two years ago, will serve as interim
CEO until a candidate can be found to permanently
fill the post, Larmore said.
“She has a lot of business experience,”
he said of Katz, who is married to Mayor Pro Tem
Herb Katz. “She’s a good person to
come in and run the chamber until we find a permanent
replacement.
“It would be natural to look for someone
with chamber experience, but we’re casting
a wider net than that,” Larmore said.
He said the chamber will be looking for someone
who is “creative and energetic.”
Linda “Tish” Tisherman, a former
chamber president who heads an employee placement
agency, will lead the search for a new CEO, Larmore
said.
Before being hired as CEO, Lynch, a former executive
with Schick Laboratories, headed chambers in Tustin,
Los Angeles, Pasadena and Beverly Hills, where
he launched the popular Westside mixers that brought
together members from different area chambers.
Lynch was also publisher of the Westside Chronicle,
a post he left to join the chamber.
He replaced Kathy Dodson, who returned to Texas
due to the Los Angeles area’s
high housing costs.
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