Chamber Hires Stephens As New President, Starts April 1

Zach Stephens selected as the Livingston-Overton County Chamber of Commerce’s new president and CEO.

Livingston Mayor Lori Elder Burnett said Stephens chosen based on his strategic vision and background in communication and marketing. Burnett said Stephens previously founded a company where he gained experience serving elected officials, associations, non-profits, and corporations in various roles statewide.

“He’s been a developer, worked budgets, he just has a lot of strong qualities that he would be able to lead our chamber forward in,” Burnett said. “Serving our members, teaching them what we can do for the membership of Livingston to hopefully continue to promote growth.”

Burnett said she expects Stephens to bring in new ideas about how to run the chamber and promote local businesses. Burnett said Stephens will be training with Chamber President and CEO Shannon Cantrell until he takes over on April 1.

“(Cantrell) is going to be training Zach on all the duties that are involved in the chamber of commerce and taking him into the community and introducing him to all of our stakeholders,” Burnett said. “And just teaching him the ropes of all the different fingers that our chamber of commerce touches just to try to assist Livingston and Overton County overall economically.”

Burnett said Stephens’ background has also given him experience with consulting, fundraising, and public affairs. Burnett said the final decision was highly competitive, but she believes Stephens will find the proper means to support local tourism.

“I think Zach will have some great ideas on how to continue to draw people to Livingston, to want to shop and use our services,” Burnett said. “Not just Livingston, but Livingston and Overton County.”