{"id":31507,"date":"2025-10-07T09:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=31507"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:21:12","slug":"wc-chamber-names-ryan-as-new-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/?p=31507","title":{"rendered":"WC Chamber names Ryan as new President"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementToProof\">\n<div id=\"attachment_20911\" style=\"width: 279px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20911\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-20911\" src=\"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Laurie-Ryans-Headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"269\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-20911\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laurie Ryan<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><a id=\"OWAf5f8419d-10bd-e0ab-3e4e-5bd61cc1a38b\" class=\"OWAAutoLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greaterwestchester.com\/\">The Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce<\/a> (GWCC)\u00a0 announced Tuesday that Laurie Ryan will become the next President of the 137-year-old organization effective Nov. 3.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">\u201cLaurie is a long-time West Chester resident, so she was a natural fit when paired with her impressive depth of experience in chamber management, as well as hands-on experience in business. She\u2019ll be a powerhouse leader for the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce and the nearly 600 businesses and organizations who are proud members,\u201d said GWCC Board Chair John Serock, of John Serock Catering.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Ryan has served as President of the Exton Region Chamber of Commerce since 2015, growing it from 270 members to 450 members today. Previously, she was a Senior Account Manager at Kellogg\u2019s, Sales Manager at Buca di Beppo in Exton and Store Manager at Wendell August Forge. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Saint Joseph\u2019s University and grew up in Havertown, PA.<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Ryan said, \u201cOver the years, I have seen that local business was not only a vital economic engine for municipalities and the families who call them home, but also a source of growth and prosperity for schools, nonprofits, entire neighborhoods and community culture. I take that responsibility very seriously, and I can\u2019t wait to be of service to my home here in West Chester.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">The Chamber began searching for a new President in July after announcing that Katie Walker was taking on a new role as Senior Director of Development at the Chester County Food Bank. GWCC Director of Events and Marketing Carly McFadden has served as\u00a0Interim President, supported by Operations and Member Support Manager Lisa Leone.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Serock said, \u201cWe are enormously grateful to Carly and Lisa for their continuing service. They have long excelled at balancing the &#8216;big picture&#8217; needs of the business community as a whole, while ensuring support for individual Chamber members who are at the heart of what we do to advance economic growth, person by person, business by business.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">The Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce\u2019s membership is building to an all-time high of nearly 600 large and small for-profit and nonprofit businesses and organizations in West Chester Borough,\u00a0Birmingham,\u00a0East Bradford,\u00a0East Goshen, \u200bThornbury,\u00a0West Goshen, Westtown and beyond. Members include Chester County\u2019s top retail, food &amp; beverage, health &amp; wellness as well as professional service providers, in addition to schools, universities and social service organizations.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0The Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce (GWCC)\u00a0 announced Tuesday that Laurie Ryan will become the next President of the 137-year-old organization effective Nov. 3. \u201cLaurie is a long-time West Chester resident, so she was a natural fit when paired with her impressive depth of experience in chamber management, as well as hands-on experience in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3162,12185,3050],"class_list":["post-31507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-featured","tag-laurie-ryan","tag-west-chester-chamber-of-commerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31508,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31507\/revisions\/31508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downingtowntimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}