BRIDGTON – Barbara Clark, the executive director of the Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, has resigned, effective Jan. 10.
Clark assumed the role of executive director eight months ago. In a Dec. 20 email to chamber members, Madelyn Litz, the group’s president-elect, wrote that Clark had resigned “due to unforeseen personal issues,” and that Sue Mercer would manage the organization’s operations until a new executive director is hired.
In an interview, Clark said that she resigned because she is moving to the Framingham, Mass. area.
Clark, a Naples resident who served as executive director of the Sebago Lakes Chamber of Commerce for nine years until April 2012, assumed the top role at the Greater Bridgton Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce on April 8, replacing Bridgton native Jim Mains, who had directed the chamber since November 2009.
After her resignation in 2012, Clark said that her exit from the Sebago chamber was a mutual decision between herself and the board and came at a time when she faced significant family obligations.
Ken Murphy, who will step down as the Bridgton chamber president on Jan. 1, commended Clark’s eight-month tenure.
“It had nothing to do with us not wanting her,” Murphy said. “She did a wonderful job in the time that she was here. We were very lucky to have her.”
Murphy, who plans to remain on the chamber’s board of directors, said that an exploratory committee would seek to hire a new executive director in the next few months.
“We’ll hope to wrap it up within the next month or two, but we’re not going to rush into just putting anybody in there,” he said.
Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Litz at 475-5117 or madelyn.litz@lakeregionschools.org.
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