Enumclaw Chamber Names Schipper New Executive Director

The Enumclaw Board of Directors today officially named Kelvin Schipper as its new executive director.

"Im excited to serve the community in this way," Schipper said. He takes on the role last vacated by former director .

Schipper is not new to the Chamber, having served on its Board of Directors for the past year and volunteered at numerous Chamber events over the years.

According to a Chamber press release, Schipper earned his bachelor's degree in business administration with a focus on sales and marketing from DeVry University in Federal Way.

A Class of 2005 gradute of Enumclaw High School, he started working at Washington Mutual as a high school intern and in the next eight years worked his way up to assistant manager of the local branch of what is now Chase Bank.

He is also a member of the Enumclaw Rotary Club.

Chamber President Tim Pierick said the Board of Directors received 30 applicants for the position and narrowed the pool to seven that received questionnaires; five of those applicants returned the completed questionnaires. And from there, three were chosen for interviews -- Schipper was one of them.

"We interviewed three candidates and though Kelvin was the best one at the time," Pierick said. "He has demonstrated great enthusiasm and dedication to Chamber over the past several years. ...We chose him because of his dedication to the community, his involvement with Rotary, his organizational skills and financial background."

Schipper's first big project before year end is to review with the Board of Directors this Wednesday the events planned for 2012 and beyond to support members and local businesses alike.

Personally, he's pretty busy as well -- Schipper's getting married in April 2012.