Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO search enters “interviewing stage”

Officials with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce are now interviewing potential candidates for its next President/CEO.

“We are now in the interviewing stage of the process. The candidates exhibit gender and ethnic diversity and we have been very impressed with their professionalism and experience,” says Carla Schuessler, the chair of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors. 

Schuessler also says the process of finding candidates “has been extremely thorough and has included additional significant details regarding reference checks, federal, state and county background checks, pre-employment credit checks, and driving and education verification.”

According to Dianna Greene, the commerce’s Interim Chief of Staff, the process of finding a new president/CEO started with the creation of a Search Committee, a “needs assessment,” and contracting an executive search firm. 

“The needs assessment consisted of meetings, calls and emails with nearly 90 key stakeholders, including Search Committee members, chamber board Executive Committee members and many public and private sector business and community leaders,” Greene says. 

A position description was then created and approved by the Search Committee and posted on websites of several organizations including Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of Chamber and Commerce Executives. 

The executive search firm contracted by the commerce to help in the search is Searchwide, according to Jim Creel Jr., the Chair of the Search Committee. “Searchwide vetted candidates by aggressively networking, prospecting, recruiting and interviewing. This resulted in over 300 conversations and connections with potential candidates and industry leaders throughout the US and the world,” he says. “Searchwide then screened and interviewed more than 50 candidates to determine the top 15 candidates to present to the Search Committee for review and discussion. The committee spent over three hours meeting to discuss each candidate at length and select the most qualified candidates for face to face interviews.”

Additional interviews will be conducted by the chamber’s Executive Committee based on recommendations by the Search Committee and a final approval will be made by the Board of Directs, according to Greene.