For the first time in 12 years, the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce will have a new public face and perspective on the local business environment.
Catherine Holt, who has been working as a management consultant with the Sage Group for the last 18 years, has been named the chamber’s new chief executive officer, replacing Bruce Carter who is leaving the post next month.
In an interview, Holt said the CEO position is a great opportunity for her to apply her experience as a consultant to both the internal workings of the chamber and its 1,400-plus members.
“The chamber is a fantastic institution in Victoria,” she said. “It is time for me to take [my] experience and apply it to something where I feel I could lead
and make some change and improvement.
“This is a new opportunity for me, but I think it fits well with the experience I’ve built over the last couple of decades.”
Holt said her tenure with the chamber will be coloured by a collaborative approach with business organizations around the region and by ensuring the chamber reflects the needs and wishes of its membership.
“The main thing I want to focus on is making sure our members feel like this chamber is for them. I will be very interested in innovative approaches on how to build membership — it’s a foundation of this organization and if we don’t make it work for them we have nothing,” she said.
She said she will spend some time getting to know the region’s business organizations and establish ties to ensure the groups are pulling together to deal with common problems and opportunities.
“All of us will do better if we work on the issues that are critical to making Victoria a better place to do business,” she said. “Victoria is so ready to become a bigger player in the business world.”
Holt has a broad range of experience, including working as an assistant deputy minister in B.C. and as a producer for CBC.
She has worked with private-sector clients, such as Spectra Energy, IBM, and SNC-Lavalin. She has worked with non-profits, including B.C. Safety Authority, and the Land Title and Survey Authority, focusing on improving stakeholder relations.
Most recently, she was the strategic business adviser to the CEO of TransLink, and has done extensive work with B.C. Transit, B.C. Assessment and First Nations.
Holt has a masters from the University of Western Ontario and a bachelor of arts from the University of British Columbia. She has been an associate faculty member in the masters of business administration program at Royal Roads University since 2003.
“She was easily the right candidate for the job,” among the more than 70 applicants, said chamber chair Al Hasham. “This is a new phase for the chamber.”
Hasham said Holt’s commitment to build the membership and ensure it is taken care of sold the hiring committee.
“She understands it’s important to look after the members, without our members there is no chamber,” he said.
There are no set-in-stone goals in place for Holt at this point, as Hasham wants her to get to know the other players in the region and help map out a new direction for the chamber.
