Page 4 - BusinessWest July 11, 2022

A New Challenge Diana Szynal Takes the Helm at
the Springfififield Regional Chamber
Diana Szynal recently made a successful transition from public service — she
was a selectman in Hatfield and then a legislative aide — to running the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. Now, she’s making another transition, to leadership
of the Springfield Regional Chamber. While Greater Springfield is a much larger area, she said the challenges facing businesses, and the basic mission of the chamber, are the same as they are in Franklin County, and she’s ready to put her experience to work in her new setting.
DBy George O’Brien
iana Szynal says that within minutes of the announcement that she had been named the new president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce going out last spring, her phone started ringing and pinging.
There were calls and texts from area business leaders, government officials, and directors of area economic
development agencies wanting to meet and talk.
“The calls started coming, and I’m still getting them,” said
Szynal (pronounced Zy-nal), adding that her appointment book is quickly filling up for the next several weeks.
Those appointments are part of what she describes as a broad learning process as she takes the reins at the Springfield cham- ber, succeeding Nancy Creed, who has stepped down officially after several years at the helm, but is assisting in the transition.
Indeed, while Szynal, who most recently served as director
of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and before that served as a legislative aide to the late state Rep. Peter Kocot, is certainly familiar with Springfield and Hampden County in gen- eral, she admits that there will be a ‘getting acquainted’ period awaiting her as she assumes the leadership position at the Springfield Regional Chamber.
“I know that I don’t know everything about Springfield,” Szynal, who started her new job July 5, told BusinessWest. “But I do know that I’ve had dozens of local businesses and communi- ty leaders offer to help me with that; Springfield is the economic engine of Western Massachusetts, and we need to make sure that we’re at the forefront, always at the cutting edge, of what’s hap- pening, business-wise and legislatively.”
While scheduling meetings with those who are now calling and texting her, Szynal is also putting together a to-do list, one that includes a return of the chamber’s popular Super 60 pro- gram this fall — nominations are currently being accepted for that honor — as well as a resumption of the chamber’s ambas- sadors program (put on the shelf due to COVID), and, further down the line, planning of the first in-person Outlook lunch since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.
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JULY 11, 2022
FEATURE
BusinessWest