Chamber installs new president at AGM

East Midlands Chamber has installed a new president and elected new board members at its recent AGM.

Dr Cham Kang has taken over the president’s role from Dawn Whitemore, while Mark Deakin becomes vice-president, and Eileen Perry MBE DL vice-chair.

Preethi Kang is the incoming chair of the chamber’s Generation Next network for young professionals aged 18 to 35.

Among those elected to the board of directors was Richard Cohen, of Pennine Healthcare and Tom Morgan, of trentbarton.

At the AGM, Dr Kang announced his three chosen charities for the year, which included Treetops Hospice.

And King’s Awards for Enterprise recipients, including David Hook, of Cosy Direct, shared their journey and best practice examples in a set of presentations.

Speaking after the AGM, Dr Chang said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be president of East Midlands Chamber.

“As a region we have got a lot of history. We’ve got brilliant businesses and we are a fantastic region for all aspects of business and a strong community.

“I think the one thing we need is confidence. It’s been a couple of difficult years, particularly last year, and I think we need to build momentum by talking each other up, helping each other to support each other.

“Let’s build that confidence, let’s build that self-belief, let’s evolve, let’s collaborate – so we can all grow together and our region grows as a result.

“I’m feeling really positive about 2026 because I think the language is starting to change.

“I think at the last Budget, everyone was a bit nervous. It was difficult but it not as bad as people had anticipated.

“Now it’s very important that we start to be optimistic and start doing the things that we need to, for successful business in a successful region.”