B.C. chamber taps into ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ with new CEO

The B.C. Chamber of Commerce will look to its new leader to bring entrepreneurial acumen and a “younger voice” to the province’s largest business organization.

Val Litwin, an entrepreneur and the current leader of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce, will take over as president and CEO of the provincial chamber in September, the B.C. chamber announced Tuesday.

Before Litwin started at the Whistler Chamber in 2013, he cofounded Blo Blow Dry Bar in 2007, the world’s largest blow-dry bar franchise with more than 70 locations worldwide. In 2011, he took on a role as vice-president of franchise operations with Nurse Next Door, a private homecare company.

Litwin, 38, is expected to “breathe fresh life” into the provincial body, said B.C. chamber board chairman Patrick Giesbrecht.

“Val brings a younger voice,” Giesbrecht said. “He’s a fresh face on an organization that has often been unfairly characterized as being part of the old business establishment.”

Litwin said: “I think ... what the chamber is excited about, and where they see a real future, is layering in some of that entrepreneurial spirit into the DNA of the organization.”

His appointment comes three months after the B.C. chamber announced it was parting ways with previous CEO Jon Garson, less than six months after he took the job.

Garson, an 11-year veteran of the chamber’s staff before taking the top job, followed John Winter, who helmed the organization for 18 years before retiring last June.

The B.C. chamber represents more than 36,000 businesses in every sector and region of the province.