The Chamber of Commerce serving Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows has a new president in Jerry Kok.

He has spent 16 years in driver training, spending much of his time travelling the globe as an advanced driving instructor with the Mercedes-Benz Driving Academy and AMG Driving Academy.

His job saw him in scenarios such as driving on frozen lakes, in cars with 600 horsepower, teaching professional drivers how to control a vehicle in all kinds of conditions. But COVID-19 struck, and really hurt the advanced driver training market.

Now he works close to home, as the general manager of Driving Unlimited Academy in Pitt Meadows, where he works with new drivers.

“Ensuring that today’s youth are safe on the streets is very important to me,” he said. “If I can play a role in that process, then I am very proud of that accomplishment”.

Kok said the Chamber has a new board and a relatively new executive director as it enters 2023. Kristi Maier has been the executive director, heading the Chamber staff, since the fall of 2022.

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“She’s doing some really good work, and we’re thinking the Chamber is going to continue to grow,” said Kok.

The 19th Annual Business Excellence Awards are coming up on March 25 at the Meadow Gardens Golf Club.

“It’s going to be a bigger event than last year, so we’re excited about that,” he said.

And the Chamber is working to build back all of its social and networking events for business people, like the Business After Hours Networking Social that is coming up on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 7-True Coffee Shop at 5 p.m.

He served for a year as a director on the Chamber, before taking on the top job on the board.

The other members of the board are vice-president Aaron Collins, treasurer Khalid Samim, secretary Alysha O’Connor, past president Eric Mollema, and directors Al Hogarth, Taylor Livesey, Michael Zamprogno, Ken Holland, and Kevin Nosworthy. Both Holland and Hogarth have also served as Chamber presidents in the past.

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