Member Article

New president for JCI Barnsley

Digital marketing company boss Ben Hawley has been appointed president of JCI Barnsley, an international membership organisation for young professionals.

Ben, who runs GoZapi based in Barnsley’s Digital Media Centre, will be taking over from Charlie Pearson who was last year’s president.

After becoming deputy president in December 2012, Ben was officially appointed JCI Barnsley’s President for 2014 at a meeting on Friday (17 January).

Each year the President sets a ‘theme’ for the year and Ben has decided 2014 should be the year to ’‘challenge yourself’.

One of Ben’s aims for this year is to raise £3,000 to be spread across four charities. The charities will be chosen each quarter. The first charity has been named as Shelter Box who will receive money raised from the annual dinner.

Ben said: “The network has done a lot for me both business wise and personally, so I’m very proud to be heading it up this year. It’s a network that brings together like-minded people and because of that I’ve made friends and gained three or four clients from being involved.”

In recent years local chambers have become fragmented due to a number of contributing factors. This is an issue that local Yorkshire chambers are keen to change, and Ben is looking forward to working more closely with other chambers in the region.

Amanda Lennon, Regional Director for Barnsley DMC, said: “The DMC has had a big involvement with JCI in recent years with a number of events and training days being held here.

“We are very proud of Ben’s commitment to the JCI and how much his business has progressed since joining us here at the DMC.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Graham Vincent .