Chamber chief right at home steering business future

A NOD to Geelong business’s illustrious past while building on its foundations for the future are top of mind for the city’s new business leader Jeremy Crawford.

Mr Crawford has begun his new role as Geelong Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer in the past month after a diverse career spanning customer experience, recruitment and strategic partnerships roles in industries including hospitality, health and sport.

While no stranger to Geelong’s lifestyle, having lived in the city for a decade and with deepening family roots in the city, Mr Crawford admits he still has plenty to learn in the chamber’s top job.

“I still feel like an outsider, even though I’ve spent nearly 10 years out of the past 13 in Geelong,” he said.

“I’ve got three kids here who were really well settled and have been pretty much been doing everything in Geelong other than working for a Geelong-based business, so I feel like I’ve ticked the final box now.”

Mr Crawford said much of the early stages of his tenure will include conversations with members and the region’s business community to understand its key challenges, opportunities and landscape.

His stint comes ahead of the chamber’s preparation of an update to its strategic plan this year, which will outline a vision, values and targets for the business body looking forward.

“That’s a great opportunity for us to assess the current landscape; what members are looking for, what the non-members are looking for – those businesses that haven’t been a part of the chamber family recently or ever.

“That’s an exciting opportunity for us to consider how things have changed in the business landscape and also consider what other resources, products or services that we think we can offer to support the business community where there might be some gaps.

“We’ll go to some considerable lengths to understand and hopefully get a very diverse representation of our members, the business community, different business shape sizes and also the different journeys that businesses are on.”

This year, the chamber will also celebrate its 170th year as an advocate networking platform for Geelong’s business community, which has seen it survive several societal and economic upheavals.

Mr Crawford hoped acknowledgement of past achievement would help galvanise commerce leaders for the next period of business success.

“We’re about to showcase some of the rich history of the past 170 years. I think that’s actually a really nice turning point to celebrate all of that and then to kick off onto that new phase,” he said.

“It is a pretty rare occurrence for an organisation to last that long, let alone in a regional area and to still be having a significant impact.

“We’re really keen to celebrate that and look backwards and and share those achievements and then equally leverage that and then continue on and hopefully build on some of that history.”