Meet the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce Team

Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce

Schultz Commercial Director

Donna has been a valuable team member for Herts Chamber of Commerce for over 3 years. Her contribution to the Chamber and her leadership of the membership team has been outstanding therefore resulting in her recent promotion to Commercial Director. Donna is going to continue to grow the development of the membership team and will actively engage and participate in all strategic and commercial activities associated with the future development of the Herts Chamber of Commerce.

Briege Leahy Chief Executive Officer

Briege was appointed CEO in March 2019. During her tenure she has spearheaded an exciting period of change and transformation, creating a Chamber that is current for today’s ever-evolving world. She is a strategic influencer within the Hertfordshire business community, bringing leaders together and focusing on key issues, such as sustainability - introducing the Herts Go Green and Grow initiative and the Entrepreneur Foundation, to name but a few.

Briege has focused on increasing awareness of what the Hertfordshire Chamber can offer its membership and the business community as a whole, promoting the benefits of collaboration, networking and keeping it localenabling the Chamber to go from strength to strength, and increasing membership by circa 35%. Under Briege’s term of office the Herts Chamber has been awarded the title of fastest growing ‘accredited’ Chamber in the UK –which is a massive accolade to Briege, her team and the membership.

Operations Director

Naomi’s role is to help the Chamber team deliver real value and stay relevant to the evolving needs and challenges facing our business community. Naomi Leads the Operations team whilst overseeing the diverse range of events the Chamber delivers across the county including the growing sector forums.

Wendy George Executive Assistant

Wendy joined the team in March 2023. Wendy will be working alongside and supporting our CEO, Briege Leahy, in addition to involvement in key and strategic projects. Wendy’s role will also include managing the Entrepreneur Foundation and assisting with LSIP, as well as focusing on our Patrons and Diamond Club Members.

Wendy has an impressive history of working within the corporate world at Senior Management level supporting CEO’s, Directors & Board Members delivering key strategic projects and acting as key point of contact for strategic customers and partners.

Amy Rich Business Support Executive

Amy is a long-standing member of the team, having been with the Herts Chamber for 10 years. Amy has extensive knowledge about the Chamber and our members. She champions her relationship with existing members ensuring they are engaged, given a great service and see value for money. Amy works with local businesses, building relationships to influence the shape of future programmes and is involved with Sales to drive revenue.

Mary Sykes Corporate Relations

For more than 10 years Mary’s role has been to offer support to corporate organisations and Hertfordshire businesses by providing advice, guidance and introductions to a variety of opportunities. She helps to enhance business performance, building alliances and strategic partnerships across the business community; and encourages companies to share their successes and examples of best practice.

Paige Scrivener Customer Relations Executive

Paige joined the team in June 2022. Her role is to work with our members to make sure they get the best use of their membership and to keep them informed of Chamber initiatives and local support. Paige works alongside the Membership team to help with Account Management, Retention, Renewal, and processing of new members. Paige is also assisting John and Frances in our Export Department to assist Hertfordshire businesses export across Europe and the world.

Gillian McDowall Membership Coordinator

Gill joined the Chamber in March 2021. Working alongside Amy, Gill assists with account management and supporting the membership team with renewals and retention; ensuring our members are engaged and feel the value of membership.

Georgia Nicholls Events Manager

Georgia joined the team in 2018 as an apprentice from Oaklands College, and having completed her apprenticeship in May 2020, became the Events Manager. Georgia is involved in all stages of managing our events, from liaising with vendors, to processing bookings to assisting with marketing campaigns.

Georgia Corry Marketing and Events Coordinator

Georgia, commonly known as Gee, joined the Herts Chamber team in November 2022 as our Marketing and Events Coordinator. Gee is responsible for managing our bi-monthly Inspire Magazine end to end from sending out invites to our Patrons to share their business achievements, collating members news, liaising with our publishers to ensure the voice of the Herts Chamber community is heard throughout Hertfordshire. Gee also supports our Events Manager (Georgia) in the planning, promoting and delivery of our fantastic Chamber events.

Priscila Zaghini Digital Marketing Executive

Priscila joined the Herts Chamber team in August 2022 as a Digital Marketing Executive. Cilla, as she is commonly known by our members and team, is responsible for the design and creation of all digital marketing collateral. Cilla is also responsible for the digital marketing strategy, website content and social media.

John Woodruffe Project Manager for the Local Skills Improvement Plan

John is Project Manager for the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP). His primary role is to ensure that the LSIP contract Herts Chamber of Commerce was awarded by the Dept for Education is delivered in a timely fashion over its three-year lifespan. This involves, by arranging a series of meetings covering the ten priority sectors we have identified, ensuring the voice of businesses in Hertfordshire are heard and are instrumental in engaging with our local FE colleges and Independent Training Providers. Employers are instrumental in this process by shaping the future of education and addressing the many skills gaps that have been identified.

Frances Harris Internal Export Manager

Frances has been involved in International Trade for over 30 years. Frances is on hand to help facilitate the requirements of Hertfordshire Exporters for their international trade success.