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ChamberWest Welcomes New CEO

May 05, 2016 04:58PM ● By Bryan Scott

By Natalie Mollinet | [email protected]

West Valley - ChamberWest, located in West Valley, is getting a new CEO –  Barbara Riddle. ChamberWest is a nonprofit organization that helps improve businesses in West Valley. They represent several hundred businesses and provide them with quality events, training, networking and government advocacy, and their new CEO is set out to carry on that tradition and improve the company. 

Riddle’s dad worked for the Bureau of Land Management, so she lived everywhere growing up. She’s lived all over the midwest, including Wyoming, Montana and Utah, and spent time in Virginia where she graduated from high school. She came back to Utah to attend college at Utah State in Logan, and from there started her career in the hospitality industry. 

“In my professional career, I started as a meeting planner for the Conference and Institute Division at Utah State,” Riddle said. She also served as president and CEO of the Davis Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I’ve also had the opportunity to run campaigns for a congressional candidate, a Utah state senator, a county commissioner and a race for myself when I had the crazy notion of serving in public office.”

When Riddle isn’t living her busy professional life, you can find her with family and friends either horseback riding, golfing, running or reading. 

Now that she has added CEO to her long list of jobs on her resume, she plans on helping to improve the company and of course helping the businesses in West Valley improve. She wants to first feel out the city and get to know the people before making any changes and is excited to see potential changes. 

“Organization, strengths, successes and opportunities will be taken into consideration as I work with the board of directors to create a new strategic plan for ChamberWest moving forward,” she said. “As is true with any chamber of commerce, the strength of the organization relies heavily on the committed volunteers.” 

According to Riddle, ChamberWest already has a strong board of directors and committee chairs, and she is excited to work with them. She knows how much time and effort they’ve already put into promoting the community in West Valley and the other cities ChamberWest represents – which includes Kearns, Millcreek and Taylorsville. 

“West Valley is the second largest city in Utah and still growing,” Riddle said. “It is important for businesses in our region to have a strong unified voice, a place where business owners and leaders can meet, discuss strategies and advocate for business-friendly policies.” 

Riddle comes with a lot of experience with nonprofit, quasi-government organizations in the private industry and feels qualified to take on the job as the new CEO. 

“Over the years, I’ve volunteered on many community committees and chamber committees and board of directors, board of governors, executive committees, legislative affairs and military affairs,” Riddle said. “This experience gives me a unique perspective that will allow me to work effectively with members of all types and sizes of organizations within the chamber.”

Spencer Ferguson, chairman of the board for ChamberWest, is excited to work with Riddle and knows she’ll be good for the company.

“I can honestly say that our future prospects have never been so bright,” Ferguson said. “Our board of directors is strong and represents a true cross-section of the business community. And now we have a CEO with an outstanding track record of taking organizations to the next level.”