Retiring chamber chief Gail Hundt looks forward to new chapter

The Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce has seen quite a transformation over nearly three decades and Gail Hundt has helped lead the way.

Article content

The chamber president and chief executive retires June 27 after more than 28 years working with the local business community.

She left her job as a National Trust branch manager in December 1995 to become general manager of the former Chatham & District Chamber of Commerce.

But she had to make another move to qualify for the job.

“I was on the (chamber) board of directors and . . . on the search committee for the successor,” Hundt said. “After the very first meeting, I informed the rest of the group I was stepping back, because I may be interested in the position and I didn’t want a conflict of interest.”

She loved her previous job, “but I always saw what the chamber of commerce does and can do,” in making a difference for the business community, she said.

Article content

“It is that voice of business,” Hundt said. “Small business, in particular has that challenge, both in time and capacity and that’s where the chamber of commerce can unify those voices.”

Hundt started amid a couple of major transitions, including the arrival of digital technology.

“The office did not have a computer when I started,” she said, something remedied early in her tenure, knowing the value of her time in banking.

Now, when internet, email and texts are fixtures of business and daily life, Hundt is seeing another business tech transformation as artificial intelligence arrives.

Shortly after Hundt joined the chamber, he faced the amalgamation of Chatham and Kent County’s towns and townships.

“So it changed the audience that I worked with, from being the city of Chatham to the municipality of Chatham-Kent,” she said.

Article content

That changed the chamber’s advocacy, “because whatever was affecting the previous city now affected all businesses right across the municipality.”

In 2007, the organization became the Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce.

With amalgamation broadening the chamber’s relationships with government officials, the new name made it easier for MPs and MPPs to relate to the organization, she said.

“We wanted to put Chatham-Kent on the map as a municipality,” Hundt said.

The Chatham-Kent chamber has maintained a great working relationship with chambers in other communities across the municipality, she added.

Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges Hundt faced as chamber chief, she said.

Article content

“There was no rule book, there was no specific direction in how to maneuver through something so unplanned,” she said.

Businesses adapted and learned to operate using hybrid and virtual meetings, with numerous employees working remotely, Hundt said.

“I think in the end there were a lot of wins out of the circumstance for how businesses operate and how people operate.”

As she prepares for the next chapter of her life, “my new agenda is my family,” said Hundt, who looks forward to being a full-time wife, mother and grandmother.

“That will become my new job,” she said. “And I’m delighted to take the position.”

But she will miss the people at the chamber, her personal contacts and her peers across the chamber’s network.

“So many people that I have engaged with over my years have become more than just a business relationship,” she said. “They have become friends and confidants.”

[email protected]

Article content