First female president for Black Country Chamber

The chartered management accountant has a wealth of commercial experience across a number of organisations, including Midland Recruitment Solutions and Poundland. In addition, she has also spent six years as a self-employed financial consultant and headed up many high-level projects on behalf of the Co-op, Holland & Barrett, M&S, Homeserve and the RAC.

At Willenhall-based AF Blakemore she sits on six divisional boards and has expertise in defining, implementing and managing strategy, and has recently qualified as a Six Sigma yellow belt to manage lean process projects to ensure efficiency.

"I am delighted to be taking on the position as president of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, especially given that I am the first female to have been appointed to the role. I want to work closely with members to raise the profile of our local chamber on both a regional and national level. The Black Country Chamber of Commerce has ambitions moving forward for first-class business support, so this is a very exciting time to be part of the organisation," she said.

Adrian Wright, outgoing president of the chamber, said: “I have worked very closely with Julie over the past 12 months and she shows real care and passion for the chamber. Julie has fantastic knowledge and experience in the business environment, which will prove to be invaluable to the chamber moving forward.”

Members of the local business community will be able to meet Julie at the Chamber Business Expo taking place on April 26 at Wolverhampton Racecourse and learn more about the priorities she will be working on during her time in office.