BERLIN — Olive Mawyer, Executive Director of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce, this week tendered her resignation effective May 25.

“I am thankful for the professional and personal development the Chamber has provided me over the last couple of years,” she said. “While it has been extremely challenging it is the most rewarding job I have ever had. I will greatly miss the daily social interaction and all the great people I have met that I am now proud to call my friends.”

Mawyer will stay on through the next three big town-wide festivals: the Jazz and Blues Bash, May Day Play Day and Cruisers weekend before moving on to her new position.

“Olive has been given a new opportunity that she felt she couldn’t pass up and we understand that it was a difficult decision for her to make,” said Chamber President Elaine Brady. “She has been a great asset to the organization and will be sorely missed.”

Mawyer came to the Chamber as a part-time employee in December, 2009. Since then she has overseen the Chamber’s transition from the very small headquarters they occupied in the former Henry Art Gallery on Main Street to the current Visitors Center and Gallery.

The Visitors Center was an important move for the Chamber as it gave them not only more exposure but the opportunity to offer a place for working artists to create and display their work.

Brady said the Chamber will put in place a search committee to review applications, interview applicants and make a recommendation to its Board of Directors for a new Executive Director.

Liz Walk, who started as a volunteer but has since become a Chamber employee expressed disappointment in Mawyer’s departure. Walk will continue on as Farmers Market manager, a position she’s held since the beginning of the season.

Brady also expressed some disappointment but wished Mawyer well in her new career. 

“I expect that she will bring the same talents and drive that she put into growing our organization to her new position,” she said. “They are very fortunate to have her joining their firm.”

For her part, Mawyer said the new opportunity was one she couldn’t pass up and thanked the Chamber for helping her to develop the skills that qualified her for the new position. She said she looked forward to returning to Chamber events as a volunteer once she was settled into her new job.