Keith Goulding is back in the saddle as the president of the Greater Corner Brook Board of Trade and is looking at blazing some new trails.
Goulding was recently elected by the group’s board of directors to fill the role vacated by Sheldon Peddle in August.
According to the group’s bylaws the board of directors must vote to fill any vacated position and the term of office is only to the next annual general meeting, which will take place in May or June 2018.
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Goulding served as president of the board for two terms from 2010-2012. He’s remained active as a past-president and after Peddle left he knew they would be looking for someone with experience to fill the role. If nominated, he was more than willing to step up.
He said the board has been far more active than it had been in a few years and he liked the direction it was going in.
“I felt that there’s a lot of good things happening right now in that board. With a vacancy at the chair sometimes you’ll lose that continuity, that momentum.”
And Goulding didn’t want to see that happen.
Over the next few months the board will be looking at a broader strategy that will focus on collaboration with other chambers of commerce. To look at what other municipalities and regions do to take a more regional approach.
“To work more closely with the other boards within out region here to see if we can develop the whole west coast.”
It may be something a little foreign for some in the business community, but Goulding said taking a regional approach is something that municipalities are doing.
For rural Newfoundland and the west coast in particular to be prosperous in the face of changing demographics and a changing focus away from oil and gas, Goulding said this is the approach that needs to be taken.
“We need to think more broadly and more regionally about how we approach economic growth and development and how we bring new money into the region.”
Goulding’s election is not the only change to the board’s executive. First vice-president Nathan Locke had stepped back from his role and Ray Brake, who had been the group’s secretary, has been elected to that position.
