ACC Holds Successful AGM in St. John’s NL

From May 26-28, the St. John’s Board of Trade hosted a successful Atlantic Chamber of Commerce (ACC) Annual General Meeting and Professional Development Day. The three-day event attracted 75 participants representing 24 Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade from across the Atlantic provinces.

The highlight of the AGM was the swearing-in of new Chair, Jean-Marc Picard and the 2019-2020 Board of Directors. Jean-Marc is a well-known transportation and logistics executive and is the executive director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. He has served on the ACC Board since 2015, most recently as 1st Vice-Chair and one of our 25 corporate partners. In addition to the ACC, Jean-Marc sits on the boards of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, Trucking Human Resource Sector Council, Moncton Industrial Development and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Jean-Marc is joined on the ACC Board by:
Executive:
• 1st Vice-Chair: Stephen Lund, Deloitte
• 2nd Vice-Chair: Leigh Winchester, BMO Bank of Montreal
• Secretary-Treasurer: Margo Soucy, CBDC Cabot (Conception Bay Area Chamber of Commerce)
• Past Chair: Andy Lodge, IG Wealth Management (Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce) 

Directors: 
• Tiffany Edwards, CN
• John Dunphy, Target Tours (Greater Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce)
• Chris Googoo, Ulnooweg Development Group
• Chad Peters, Lynwood Strategies
• Steve Rankin, Enbridge (Halifax Chamber of Commerce)
• Des Whelan, Training Works (St. John’s Board of Trade)
• Pam Williams, Cox & Palmer
• Ted Pahl, Tignish Credit Union (West Prince Chamber of Commerce)
• Neil Rogers, Desjardins Financial Independent Network (Yarmouth & Area Chamber of Commerce)
• Meaghan Seagrave, BioNB (Fredericton Chamber of Commerce)

The AGM featured a keynote speech by Kim Keating, COO of The Cahill Group, who spoke on the importance of business growth, embracing change, and attracting and retaining talent in Atlantic Canada. Sebastien Dignard, Executive Vice-President of Member Relations, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, also spoke about how innovating and articulating a core value proposition can assist in efforts from member engagement to retention as trends change the landscape that we operate in.