Chamber confirms Manskey’s departure and names new economic development person

What The City Wire reported Dec. 18 is now official. The Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce issued a press release late Friday afternoon confirming that Tom Manskey will resign as president and CEO of the chamber effective Jan. 30, 2009.

The only reason given was that “Manskey tendered his resignation to pursue other opportunities.”
 
The statement also noted that Roger Meek, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, “expressed his gratitude to Mr. Manskey for the Chamber’s many accomplishments during his tenure and wished him success in his future endeavors.”

In somewhat of a surprise, the chamber also announced Cheryl Garner as the chamber’s new vice president of economic development, effective Jan. 5. The press release announcing Garner cited Manskey as making the announcement, and came just minutes before the release confirming Manskey’s resignation.
 
Garner, an Arkansas native, most recently worked in project and industry development for the Columbia Gulf Transmission Company in Houston.

“In view of the current global economic crisis, I believe the role of economic development is more important than ever to the community and will also be increasingly challenging,” she said. “I believe it will take all of us working together to execute the current vision but also in developing new initiatives to take advantage of what is available to us naturally, particularly in the areas of energy and transportation.”

According to the chamber statement, Garner has “extensive experience dealing with economic development in the past, including being the president of the League City Economic Development Corporation in League City, Texas.”

(The City Wire intends to provide a follow up story to the change at the chamber.)