The Kamloops Chamber of Commerce has found its new executive director.

The Chamber has hired John Perks for its top job, who is described as an entrepreneur and business executive. He will be starting in his new role on Monday.

Chamber president Joshua Knaak says the search started with nearly 40 candidates who applied from across Canada and internationally.

“John certainly seems to be a very exciting and very dynamic leader, he brings a lot of energy with him. He is very familiar with not-for-profits, he comes here having been the executive director of two not-for-profits that he has started,” Knaak says.

“A little bit newer to the Chamber world, but I think that that actually can have some real advantages. Because quite frankly, he’s going to bring some fresh ideas, some new ways of thinking. And we’re very confident he’s going to integrate well with the team that we have there.

“I can’t say enough as a board about the team that we have at the Chamber, with Acacia stepping in as our interim executive director and everybody really rising to the challenge. I think we were very happy to be able to continue with uninterrupted service for our membership over the last three months, and they really did a terrific job.”

Perks takes over for Deb McLelland as the Chamber’s executive director, who stepped down on Dec. 31 after spending 15 years in the role and nearly 20 with the Chamber.