The Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce and Industry Board of Directors elected three officers and approved one appointment for its six-member Executive Committee for 2025-26 at its regular monthly meeting held in the Hammersmith Community Room at Community Bank of Elmhurst on November 12.
Elected to serve one-year terms on the Executive Committee as follows were:
Chair— Kristin Walker, Vice President, Relationship Management at Hinsdale Bank & Trust Company (Elmhurst Bank), Wintrust Financial Corporation;
First Vice Chair— Scott LaMorte, Vice President of Business Development & Commercial Lending at Community Bank of Elmhurst; and
Second Vice Chair— Nicky Steinberg, Publisher at Clarendon Hills Living, Downers Grove Living, Elmhurst Living and Westmont Living Magazines.
Appointed to serve a one-year term on the Executive Committee as follows was:
Treasurer—Ralph Pechanio, Chair of the City of Elmhurst’s Veterans Memorial Commission, former community banker and long-time Chamber volunteer.
Walker, LaMorte, Steinberg and Pechanio will be joined on the Executive Committee by Immediate Past Chair Angela Villegas, Vice President and Retail Branch Liaison at Lakeside Bank, and ex-officio member Jennifer Veremis, Chamber President and CEO.
Walker is the 14th female Board Chair in the Chamber’s 106-year history, all of them since 1982.
Walker will work closely with the Chamber staff and oversee the policy-making work of the Chamber Board and its four standing committees (Marketing, Membership, Ways and Means, and Governmental Affairs), as well special committees and task forces.
Walker served as First Vice Chair and chair of the Membership Committee in 2025.
LaMorte will chair the Marketing Committee on which he has served for numerous years.
Steinberg has served on the Membership Committee since 2024 and will now chair the committee. She also serves as an ECCI Ambassador.
Pechanio will chair the Ways and Means Committee for an 11th year in a row as the appointed Treasurer.
Veremis chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee in her role as the President and CEO.
Villegas has served on the Board since her appointment in 2022 and on the Executive Committee since 2023. Prior to chairing the Board, she first served as Second Vice Chair and Chair of the Marketing Committee and then as First Vice Chair and Chair of the Membership Committee.
Completing his fourth year of service on the Executive Committee was Past Chair Colin Dalough, System Program Director, Government Relations of Endeavor Health.
Dalough served as 2024 Board Chair, 2023 First Vice Chair and 2022 Second Vice Chair.
Established in 1918, the Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a voluntary organization of business and professional men and women who have joined together to promote the civic and commercial progress of the community.
The mission of the Elmhurst Chamber is to promote an environment that creates success for local businesses and our community.
The Chamber also serves the needs of its members through services, programs and events that provide opportunities for networking and referral, business education, development and promotion, governmental representation and community involvement.