Chambers of Commerce are winding down the current year and preparing for 2026, with a changing of the guard on their boards of directors.
The Columbia County Chamber of Commerce’s current board president is Neil Gwynne, owner of the Poolwerx Augusta franchise. Gwynne served as chair as the chamber prepared for its 20th anniversary.
“Somebody recently said to me that chambers are all about planting trees that you never get to sit underneath and get the shade from. And if I can help this chamber, plant those trees, and continue to grow and provide for the county, then I’ve done my job successfully,” he told ABD. “I’m not worried about my legacy or what I got done this year. It’s what I left everybody else. And hopefully we’ve left the chamber in a better place than we found it.”
He added his term as president looked to what is needed in the future for the chamber and the county.
“We recently really looked at our vision and our strategic plan for the next five plus years, and all of that kind of weaves together is how we make that value proposition for all of our members,” he said.
Stepping into the role of president for the coming year will be Helen Caldwell of Pinnacle Bank. Gwynne had words of advice for Caldwell.
“It takes more time than you originally thought,” he quipped. “However, Helen and I have worked so closely together this year. I really made it important for us to make decisions together this year, and not just my decisions, as I hand it off to Helen at the end of the year. And we’ve now started to loop Janee (Dock, Piedmont Augusta, incoming chair-elect) into a lot of those decisions, because she’s now going to go into that secondary role where she needs to be involved all year long, so that she’s setting up her year as being a chair.”
Other area chambers are also announcing new board chairs.
The Augusta Metro Chamber will announce the 2026 Board of Directors in January.
The 2025 Board Chair is Attorney Kimberly Wilder of Davis, Chapman and Wilder, LLC.
At the Burke County Chamber, Joel Leopard of Plant Vogtle will hand the gavel to Keith Dutterer with Ingevity.
The Aiken Chamber board will be led by Dustin Ennis of Edward Jones Investments, taking over from Molly Jones with SRP Federal Credit Union.
In North Augusta, the chamber’s board of directors will be led by Andrea Bowles of Blanchard and Calhoun Real Estate, stepping into the role held by Greg Greenawalt of Gracious Hospitality Services.
