Ricco joins Chamber of Commerce

City of Chardon hires new executive director to take over for Clawson

Melissa Ricco’s extensive community experience served as an important element in a decision by the Chardon Area Chamber of Commerce to choose her as its new executive director.

Over the past several years Ricco has dedicated much of her time to assisting with events and activities presented by the Chardon Square Association and Chardon Tomorrow.

And from her side, involvement in the civic groups increased a desire to expand her efforts.

“Over the last six years I have made many acquaintances and friends through these organizations and have been afforded the opportunity to meet people from small business owners to city employees both in and outside of Chardon and was sparked with a need to do more for our city,” she said.

Ricco is taking over the reins from Stacia Clawson who worked as the chamber’s executive director since 2015. During that time the former administrator helped with more than doubling membership from approximately 100 to 225.

“My main goal in this role is to make the Chardon area more visible, by attracting clients and customers to our area, and to prompt entrepreneurs to set up shop here.”

— Melissa Ricco

Clawson said that as director she was excited to see the community grow with businesses reflecting national trends such as an emphasis on wellness.

“In the past few years alone we’ve seen wellness centers, yoga studios, a salt cave and other services set up shop in Chardon and with things reopening they are starting to flourish once again,” she said.

“We’ve also seen more restaurants set up on the square to the point where they were all able to come together for the recent Chardon Restaurant Week,” she added. “We’ve seen more specialty boutiques come into the area which was also an area where we had been lacking.”

Clawson said that she’s also proud of establishing a higher profile for the chamber, due in part to connecting with such groups as CSA, Chardon Tomorrow and Leadership Geauga.

She noted that adopting an attitude of working with rather than competing against each other helped to strengthen the partnerships.

Along with Ricco’s many volunteer efforts in the Chardon area other qualifications suiting her for the director’s position include more than 20 years of administrative experience spanning from the architectural world to higher education at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine.

She’s currently taking courses in business management with an end goal of focusing on non-profit studies.

Among Ricco’s present chamber endeavors is collaborating with an Auburn Career Center staffer who is conducting a student-run media project to be rolled out in May. The focus is to provide chamber members with short videos and publications that they can share across various social media platforms for advertising purposes.

As businesses continue to feel the losses stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic Ricco said the chamber plans “to do whatever we can to help ease some of their burden and to advocate for the championing for the Chardon area as a wonderful destination in which to work, live and visit.”

The overall vision of her new position is clear.

“My main goal in this role is to make the Chardon area more visible, by attracting clients and customers to our area, and to prompt entrepreneurs to set up shop here,” she said.