PORT ANGELES — The North Olympic Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau has a new executive director, but it means the Forks Chamber of Commerce is losing its leader.
Diane Schostak, 51, who has been with the Forks Chamber of Commerce since 1997, was chosen out of 26 other applicants by the visitor and convention bureau’s executive director search committee last week.
“Our committee was impressed with the number of capable candidates, but when we reviewed our list of ‘weighted’ criteria, Diane was the obvious choice,” said Pat McCauley of the Sequim-based marketing firm InsideOut Solutions, chairwoman of the search committee.
Schostak will replace Kristi Agren, who resigned in March for a job with Media West in Bellevue, which produces the Washington State Lodging Guide.
A ‘regional mindset’
Schostak plans to continue to live in Forks with her husband and family and will commute on weekdays to Port Angeles.
The visitor and convention bureau’s office is in the downtown Port of Port Angeles building.
She said the Forks Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors greeted the news with enthusiasm, saying she was the perfect person for the position because the bureau’s focus is to promote tourism in the unincorporated areas of Clallam County.
“I have always had a regional mindset and feel as though I have been pointed toward this position for quite a while,” Schostak said in a statement.