Sharon Seville (Fellow REC), Director of First Executive Recruitment has recently become Stockport Local President for Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Below, Sharon explains her involvement with the Chamber and intentions for her Presidency.
I’ve been a member of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (Stockport) for over 10 years. Originally, one of the main reasons for joining was that as a new, small business I wanted to belong to an established and trusted organisation that could provide me with support, advice and guidance as and when I needed it. In addition I also knew that as an organisation the Chamber was the representative business voice to industry and government on both a local and National level. Since then my business has drawn on the resources the Chamber has to offer and I’ve watched it evolve over the years to meet the changing needs of its members and the wider business community.
In December 2019 I had the privilege of becoming Vice President. My role in the Chamber has provided me with the opportunity to be actively involved in various local partnerships and relationships whilst representing the chamber as a voice for business within Stockport. This has included; The Economic Resilience Forum, Town Improvement, Economic Alliance and Manufacturing and Engineering Forums, my own personal business sector.
Like so many organisations in the last 12 months, we have had to adapt and change the way we do things during the pandemic. The agility of our organisation to move from physical meetings and face to face networking to virtual networking and support for our members has been the challenge we have met head on. It has allowed us to carry on the work we are good at.
As President my key focus will be to strengthen relationships between the Chamber, the Council, businesses and the wider community in Stockport. I want us to be more visible and accessible to our members and our partnerships. I want us to engage and contribute to the creation of opportunities we have as a region. To continue to give members and future members the good guidance, strong support and considered advice they come to us for and, more importantly an opportunity to be part of the success Stockport can achieve.
Stockport Council welcomed Sharon’s appointment as the new Stockport Local President. Caroline Simpson, Deputy Chief Executive at Stockport Council said:
“Having worked with Sharon on Stockport’s Economic Resilience Forum to support local businesses to survive the pandemic, I know that her appointment as Stockport Local President is brilliant news for the borough’s businesses, the local community, the Chamber, and the Council.
Sharon shares our ambition to develop closer partnership working with the Chamber and its membership so that, together, we can support our businesses to have their views and ideas contribute to making Stockport an even greater success through delivering our One Stockport Borough Plan together with our partners.
I look forward to working with Sharon to continue strengthening our relationship with the Chamber and its members.”
Cllr David Meller, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration at Stockport Council said:
“It’s great news that Sharon is being appointed as the Stockport Local President. Local businesses are hugely important to our communities and they were vital in supporting us through a very difficult year. We’re looking forward to working with Sharon to further develop our partnerships with businesses so that they can help to make Stockport even stronger and more successful.”