Long time Pearl River County resident Terry Farr has joined the Greater Picayune Area Chamber of Commerce as the new executive director.
Farr is recently retired from Bank Plus where he served in a number of roles from a loan officer to vice president. He brings decades of finance experience, having worked for Bank Plus for almost 20 years.
Before that, he worked for a number of other mortgage companies in Jackson, Mississippi and in Tennessee.
Farr is a 1972 graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in real estate. He began his career right out of college selling real estate.
He and his wife moved to the Picayune area in 1998 to be closer to her family, and have been here ever since.
On Jan. 27, of this year he retired from Bank Plus and enjoyed his time off from work. But recently, he got a call from members of the Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors asking if he would be interested in applying for the open executive director position.
Monday was his first day in his new position.
Farr also has prior experience with the Chamber. He has served two terms on the Board of Directors and has a positive outlook that this area’s economic development can grow.
“We have so much potential here with our location,” Farr said.
He also praised the working relationships the city and county governments have with each other.
As the new director, Farr said his focus will be to build the membership and entice attendance at Chamber events. Farr said he would also like to see more young people who graduate from the local schools stay close to home by providing them with good jobs. To do that, he said the Chamber will need to work harder to recruit businesses. He also wants more young people to become members of the Chamber.
As he assumes his new role, he will speak with local business owners to learn more about the services they provide so he can connect potential customers with those services.
Farr said he is not afraid of change, and as such intends to not only implement new ideas from the Board and himself, but he is willing to hear new ideas from the business community.
He urges any business that is not already a member, to consider joining the Chamber.
“If I were a business owner I would look at it as an investment, not an expense,” Farr said.
The Chamber is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.