By Dan Hust
LIBERTY — October 15, 2004 – Jacquie Leventoff, who for 13 years led the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce through one of its most prosperous and successful phases, has announced her resignation.
Appropriately enough, she’s headed for one of the companies she helped bring to the area.
Come December, Leventoff will shed her “president/CEO/executive director” mantle at the chamber in Liberty and don the title “director of human resources” for Kohl’s Distribution Center in Wurtsboro.
“It was an opportunity for me to grow personally,” she said earlier this week.
But that doesn’t mean she’ll be disappearing from the local scene. The Fallsburg resident plans to stay involved in most of her current community activities, and “I want to make sure the chamber is well taken care of.”
After all, Leventoff’s proudest achievement is watching the county grow through the efforts of the chamber, which in her tenure jumped from 400 members to 1,100.
“The chamber was my first love,” she remarked, recalling taking the reins from former president/CEO Chris Cunningham (now Sullivan County Legislature Chair) in 1991, four years after starting in a similar position with the Monticello Action Committee, the village’s chamber at that time.
And with the chamber’s second-in-command, Jim Law, headed out next week, Leventoff is making sure she’s “not going to leave any of the things undone.”
“The chamber is not going anywhere,” she said. “The chamber’s strong and will continue to be strong.”
No doubt about that, added Arden Dean, chair of the chamber’s board.
“In the end, the county itself may be stronger,” he explained. “We have a strong board.”
And while he’s sad to see Leventoff go, he’s glad she’s off to bigger and better things.
“I think it’s great for Jacquie,” he said. “We can’t afford to pay her what she’s worth, but we are sorry to lose her.”
Thanks to Law’s previously announced departure, Dean said the search for chamber leader candidates is already on, and “we will have someone by December.”
Still, he acknowledged, “it’s going to take a unique individual.”
Leventoff is willing to help out in whatever way she can – and plans to remain active in the chamber long after going to Kohl’s in mid-December.
“It’s been my pleasure to serve the business community,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”