If you were a regular at the Revelstoke Farm & Craft Market last summer, you may recognize the new executive director of the Revelstoke Chamber of Commerce.
Jamie Mayes was announced as the new manager of the chamber last week, replacing Judy Goodman, who is retiring at the end of this month.
“I absolutely love the community,” Mayes said in a phone interview from Kamloops at the end of a busy week. “I’ve been coming there for the last 2.5 years on a pretty regular basis.”
Mayes comes to Revelstoke from Venture Kamloops, that city’s economic development arm, where she worked as a business retention & expansion specialist.
Mayes grew up in Logan Lake, a small town just outside of Kamloops. After graduating high school, she enrolled in the tourism management program at Thompson Rivers University.
“I’ve been here ever since,” she said.
After graduating in 2008, she got a job as an events coordinator with the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce. She spent almost five years there before moving on to Venture Kamloops in 2013.
Her job as business retention & expansion specialist required her to work with start-up companies and entrepreneurs and help connect them with different federal and provincial resources available to them.
“I help them develop their business and connect them with resources they need to be successful,” she said.
On the side, she’s creates and sells jewellery made out of recycled wood under the name Tiny Timber Designs. She started selling at the farmers market last May.
She says her art business has helped her work with small businesses, because it gives her an insight into the work it entails.
Mayes has been coming to Revelstoke for several years after meeting her boyfriend, who lives here. Last winter she took up snowboarding for the first time and she also mountain bikes and cross-country skis.
Mayes sees Revelstoke as a vibrant community with lots of opportunities.
“There’s a great young energy but there’s an established atmosphere that I think adds such value to the community,” she said. “The mesh of those two things together is really unique.”
When asked about what issues she see facing Revelstoke, she brought up the long-standing business tax issue and the move to improve access to the community from the Trans-Canada Highway. She said she’ll know more after she gets to Revelstoke at the end of this month and begins talking to people in the community.
“I’m going to meet a lot of people and hear a lot about what everyone wants to see happen, or things that are happening that people like,” she said. “I’m really excited to make the transition to the community and better get to know what opportunities do exist.”
Mayes is scheduled to start her new job at the end of May. She will be at the chamber’s next business lunch at the community centre on Wednesday, June 8.
“I am stoked to welcome Jamie to the team and I am confident she is going to be a great leader.” said Goodman in a news release.
