OTTAWA: Kerry Colborne will serve another year as Oakville Chamber of Commerce chair.
“It can be quite a demanding role and one of my motivations is that you barely get into the role, meet all the people you need to and your term is almost done already,” said the founder of Force 10 Capital Management Inc. during her speech at the 61st annual Chair’s Dinner, which took place at the Oakville Conference Centre Thursday night.
The event attracted some 400 members of the town’s business community and local dignitaries.
In an interview with the Oakville Beaver, Colborne spoke about her reasons for staying.
“Staying on another year lets you deepen those relationships and that is a benefit to the chamber.”
Oakville Chamber of Commerce President John Sawyer said it is not unprecedented for a chair to be asked by the board to serve a second term.
“In our 66 years, there have been five times where we have had a chair serve twice,” he noted.
“The demands on the chair are pretty onerous and their business actually suffers when they are away. We always ask the chair if they would like to serve a second term and most decline saying they’ve done their duty. Kerry agreed she would stay on for a year and we are thrilled to have her. She’s done a great job.”
Colborne succeeded Orla Johnston as chair in 2014.
Chamber staff have previously described Colborne as a seasoned business executive with international experience gained through a long career in the finance, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
She served as managing director (CEO) of New Zealand and Global Marketing Director (in both Lyon, France and Duluth, Georgia) for Merial, a leading company in the animal health sector.
More recently, she played a role in supporting small- and medium-sized businesses in the Oakville and Burlington area by providing financing as a senior manager of loans with the Business Development Bank of Canada.
The chamber chair has since returned to her entrepreneurial roots by working full-time for Force 10 Capital Management Inc., which she established in 2007.
Colborne has become a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Halton and served as director for the board of the Oakville Arts Council (OAC) for four years before acting as treasurer for one year.
