Mills was acclaimed as the chamber’s new president during its annual general meeting on Sept. 27. He also serves as the head golf professional at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.
He was previously president of the Jasper Hockey League and had sat on the assistants’ board of directors of the PGA of Alberta.
“Being part of a board and then that executive, it’s nothing new, but obviously being part of the Chamber is, and I’m very much looking forward to learning a lot and representing that business community, and, yeah, I’m super stoked, and I am really happy to see where we go.”
Paul Hardy with SunDog Tour Co. was acclaimed as vice president.
Incumbent Aman Gupta retained his spot as secretary/treasurer, and the board of directors includes incumbent Matricia Bauer as well as Sandra Coombe, Violette Dalgleish, Tyler Kernick and Brett Newton.
Mills described the new board as diverse, with members from various backgrounds such as sales and marketing, financial and business owners.
“It’s a relatively fresh team, so it’s very exciting,” Mills said.
“We’ve had a couple of different meetings, king of broken into our designated committees that each individual is going to be cheering up and then getting all those meetings in place."
The first official board meeting will take place Oct. 26, before the Fitzhugh’s press time.
With Mills living in Jasper for 15 years and Hardy being a resident around double that time, they have many connections with community members and business owners.
Mills said they have heard plenty of positive feedback about what is to come and what will be done in advocating for small and large businesses.
While he was not able to speak on any specific advocacy items until at least after the first board meeting, he did outline his basic advocacy strategy.
“I wanted to dedicate a little bit more time to be present, be a voice at some council meetings with the municipality,” Mill said.
“I am coming into a little bit of time off away from the golf course at the end of the season, and myself and Paul have spoken, [and] I’m going to try to get out there and meet all 143 members of the chamber.”
He highlighted how challenging the past three years have been for the business community, noting the pandemic and the Chetamon wildfire last year.
“So, there has been some challenging hurdles, but knock on wood we don’t have anything [like] that come around, and we can really focus on pushing that needle, making sure that the business community members are heard.”
