The Team

Office Team – here to help

Elaine Gray

Chamber President

Elaine Gray has been elected as the new president of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce – the first female president in the organisation’s 212-year history.

Elaine, who is partner and head of the Carey Olsen Guernsey dispute resolution and litigation team, has served as vice president of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce for the past year. She was elected as president the GCC AGM on 15th July 2020, replacing Barrie Baxter who had held the position since 2018.

Elaine said: “It is a huge honour to become the first female president of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, and I would like to thank Barrie for his excellent work and commitment over the past two years. As an organisation, Chamber continues to play an incredibly important role in Guernsey’s business community, representing businesses across all industries and sectors in relation to the latest issues and opportunities affecting them. No challenge is more pressing than Guernsey’s ongoing response and recovery to the global coronavirus pandemic so we look forward particularly to representing members in our work with government on Guernsey’s ‘Revive and Thrive’ strategy.”

Diane de Garis

Vice President

Chamber’s recently appointed Vice President Diane de Garis has had an active involvement with the organisation for some time and is delighted to be more closely involved at Board level.

She runs her own business, de garis Accounting, and was heavily involved earlier this year in providing free advice and support for SMEs affected by Covid.

Diane is a chartered accountant and has a degree in pure mathematics: ‘I absolutely love numbers.’ She sees Chamber as a pivotal part of the island community and its business sector. ‘There are so many aspects to Chamber that place it right at the heart of life here and I am passionate about Guernsey so that mixture is a perfect match.’

Under Chamber’s recent Executive reorganisation, each of the eight members are responsible for working closely with the industry groups and Diane liaises on digital skills and entrepreneurs/start-ups.

‘Chamber is a really fascinating organisation because we work at every level, from one person start-ups to the largest finance sector corporates and everything in between. There is no other group in the island which has that reach or breadth and part of the appeal for me is that volunteering with Chamber enables me to have really valuable insight from businesses of all types and to help them through our lobbying and support initiatives.’

Kay Leslie

Executive Director

Kay is the Director tasked with the day to day running of Chamber and its Business Development Centre. She ran her own PR & Marketing Consultancy for 10 years and has worked on a European level in this area and in Business Development. Her early background was in the media. As one of eight Chamber Executive Directors, Kay is the main point of contact for those visiting the Markets Inner Street premises and as the coordinator for lobbying, communications and engagement across the board.

Lauren Ridgwell

Events and Admin Executive

Admin and Events Executive Lauren Ridgwell is a familiar face for the hundreds of Chamber members (and potential members!) who pop into the Markets HQ on a regular basis. She ensures that the substantial amount of paperwork involved in dealing with 18,000 individuals is up to date and relevant. Lauren is also a pivotal part of Chamber’s event management – and also takes photographs for our comms and publications.

Cathy Wanyoike

Membership and Admin Executive

Cathy is Chamber’s newest recruit and joins the Chamber team from a varied background which most recently includes HR. She is enjoying the breadth of activities within the organisation and is also introducing the Chamber team to the delicious elements of international cookery, which is one of her passions. Cathy thoroughly enjoys meeting people and working with a large number of individuals and is bringing her impressive energy to all of the business groups’ events and membership engagement.