New exec for Kelowna chamber

The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce didn’t have to look far for its new executive director.

The 1,350-member organization has hired Dan Rogers, previously with the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, for the job. In his three years at the Vernon chamber, Rogers oversaw an increase in members, advocacy, partnerships and chamber programs. Before moving to the Okanagan, Rogers lived in Prince George where he was a four-term city councillor and one-term mayor.

The Kelowna chamber officially started its search for a permanent executive director in January after Caroline Grover resigned following a lengthy medical leave. During her absence, two former Kelowna chamber presidents, banker Lorraine McGrath and realtor Ken Bessason, stepped up to manage the chamber on an interim basis.

Ferris lived in the South Okanagan as a boy when his father worked at Smithers Motors in Oliver.

He got into the hotel business in the early 1960s and worked as a desk clerk at the Palliser in Calgary and manager of Canadian Pacific’s Moraine Lake Lodge in Lake Louise.

He married into a farming family and spent most of his working life on Alberta and Saskatchewan farms until retirement in 2005. However, it wasn’t all work.

In the 1970s, he rode his horse, Nature’s Ballet, in the 470-mile Western Canadian Endurance Championships from Regina to Calgary in 101 hours, placing second, and repeatedly did the 100mile, 24-hour Tevis Cup endurance race from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to Auburn, California. The horse completed the race five times, a record that still stands today.

Ferris also liked to drag race cars on the quarter-mile track with the Alberta Hot Rod Association and dabbled in politics as the president of Alberta Young Social Credit.

Ferris’ latest bucket-list trip was driving across Canada in a convertible last summer.

“My philosophy is keep going and crossing things off the bucket list,” he said.