STANDISH – After a six-month search, the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce has hired Gorham resident Aimee Senatore as its new executive director.

Senatore, who has served as director of marketing and member services at Maine Energy Marketers Association (formerly Maine Oil Dealers Association) in Brunswick since 2008, will begin work Nov. 26. She replaces former Saint Joseph’s College president Dr. Joe Lee, who served as the chamber’s interim director since the resignation of Barbara Clark.

Senatore, 35, has a long history with the Sebago Lake area. She grew up in Standish, where her parents, Carl and Julie Gillespie, still reside. She lives in Gorham with her husband, Ryan, and their children, Ella, 5, and Finnegan, 3.

“When this position opened up, one of the reasons I was attracted to it was, one, it was in the community I grew up in. I grew up in Standish and my first job was at the Pizza Hut in Windham when it opened,” she said. “Plus, the Sebago Lake area has a special place in my heart. Three generations of my family have spent their summers and most of the seasons of the year enjoying that region, particularly Sebago Lake State Park. So when I heard of this opportunity, there’s really nothing I would rather do more than represent that area.”

Senatore is excited about her new position, which will be to market and bolster the region’s business community, and says she will hit the ground running.

“The chamber’s board of directors holds the community and the work that the chamber does very close to their heart. And that’s my personality, too. I really don’t approach my work as a job – it’s kind of a passion for me. I have a lot of energy. I like to work hard,” Senatore said.

The search committee that hired Senatore last week had nothing but praise for their new executive director.

“We are thrilled to welcome Aimee into this position,” chamber president Cheryle Nielsen-Pesce said. “Her leadership will be instrumental in helping the chamber to provide value to our members, promote local companies, and strengthen the business community throughout the Lakes Region.”

“Aimee really blew us away,” added Dan Hancock, vice president of the chamber and chairman of the search committee. “She did a lot of research about the chamber and had some very concrete ideas on how to implement some of her ideas. She just impressed us all with her preparation and her enthusiasm, and she’s going to be a breath of fresh air.”

Senatore said the first thing she’ll do is work with others to come up with a vision for the chamber.

“I have a lot of ideas,” she said. “I think that a lot of what the chamber is looking for now in new leadership is a new strategy. And one of the things that I think sold the board when I presented myself to them was I think every committee needs a bold vision for the future. And that’s kind of how I see my role as executive director of this chamber, is how can I work with the existing board of directors, the staff, the volunteers and create this bold vision for the immediate future and beyond that, and how can we try to rally the community behind that vision.”

Senatore went on to define the vision.

“The biggest part of that vision is going to be growing the chamber itself, which means bringing on more members, reinstating some of the members which have dropped membership for one reason or another. And adding more value.”

After a nine-year tenure by Clark, who led the chamber through the economic downturn and was involved with multiple committees in the member-communities of Windham and Naples, the search committee spent three to four months after Clark resigned to survey the board of directors, existing members and past members about what they would like the organization to become, Hancock said. The committee then used that information to create a new executive director’s job description. Hancock said more than 60 people from around the country applied for the position.

With the change of leadership will be a change of tack, as well, Hancock said.

“One of the biggest changes is making it the responsibility of the executive director to promote local businesses and being more of an advocate for them and also getting involved with all 10 towns [of the chamber], and helping promote events such as Sebago Days, Casco Days, other events in the area,” Hancock said. “Every community has its events and we haven’t been overly involved with those in the past and we think we should be.”

It’s a philosophy and role Senatore says she’s fully committed to.

“I believe sometimes things come along when they’re supposed to, and I’m really excited to get working and get going and getting everybody engaged,” she said.