Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Ex-Rogers Park Business Alliance Director Now Running Edgewater Chamber

By Benjamin Woodard | February 5, 2013 2:42pm | Updated on February 5, 2013 4:37pm
 Kimberly Bares was the executive director of the Rogers Park Business Alliance for 11 years.
Kimberly Bares was the executive director of the Rogers Park Business Alliance for 11 years.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Benjamin Woodard

EDGEWATER — A few days after concluding an 11-year stint as director of the Rogers Park Business Alliance, Kimberly Bares has been appointed as the interim director of the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber's former director, Sean Smith, resigned after eight months on the job, said Jennifer Clark, chairman of its board of directors and Loyola's vice president of campus and community planning.

The business alliance announced last month Bares would be leaving to persue full-time consulting with her 5-year-old firm, PLACE Consulting.

Clark said it was "serendipitous" that Bares was hired as the interim director. The move was not planned to coincide with her leaving her previous job in Rogers Park, she said.

She said she expects Bares to stay as interim director for "about three months," as a permanent director role is redefined "for an Internet age" and in light of the city's "shrinking budget."

"The old-fashioned days of sidewalk sales is not how businesses operate [today]," she said.

Brian Koester, vice chair of the chamber and owner of the Bark Bark Club, said the chamber "is moving in the direction of trying to meet the needs of business owners."