The new Executive Director of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce is ready to hit the ground running.

Acacia Pangilinan was named to the role full time yesterday, after serving as in the interim for the last four months.

She says her top priority is filling a couple of vacancies in the Chamber office.

“We’re saying goodbye to our administrator who is leaving B.C. at the end of the month,” she said on NL Newsday. “And then of course, because I was the internal candidate who is now moving over to this role, we have another position that needs to be filled. So, I’d like to get those positions filled first.”

Pangilinan admits she has huge shoes to fill as she replaces Deb McClelland who stepped down as Executive Director in 2018, after 15 years in that role.

“I’ve known Deb for the last decade. She was actually a judge in the Miss Kamloops ambassador program when I participated in it and she’s just been an incredible mentor to me and a lot of women in the community,” Pangilinan says. “I’ve got a huge job ahead of me to try and fill those shoes, but she laid a really good foundation, so I know I’ll be able to lead the team just like she did.”

She admits she was a little disappointed that she didn’t get the job the first time around, but that is now water under the bridge.

“I am 100 per cent on board with getting behind a vision that’s going to make the Chamber be the Chamber of tomorrow and have the opportunity to truly make a great, positive impact here in Kamloops,” she says.

“As much as it was disappointing, it’s also really exciting that now I get to execute what my vision is.”

The Chamber had initially hired John Perks for the Executive Director position but reversed course after an uproar over his controversial social media posts.