COLIN MARR: I can’t think of anywhere I would rather live and work

It’s brilliant to be back in the Highlands. I’ve spent the last five-and-a-half years doing a job in Edinburgh, which I loved, but I’ve been travelling back here most weekends for my fix of Highland life.

I’ve just completed my second full week as the chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce. I’m still getting my feet under the table there, and it might take a while to work out the direction of travel, but I’m already certain I’ve made the right move.

For me the Highlands is the most beautiful place in the world and I wake up every day smiling at all the things we have on our doorstep. I can’t think of anywhere I would rather live and work.

I’ve spent those two weeks getting to know our staff and our board of directors, and next up is to start to meet our members. That’s what the chamber is all about.

We’re a membership organisation and our purpose is to help our members develop their businesses, and together to bring economic growth to Inverness and the Highlands.

We do that through connecting businesses together so that they can increase their number of partners; through supporting growth – especially when a business needs help with import and export issues; and through representing business issues to local and national government.

And we run Developing the Young Workforce which is helping solve the biggest issue for all our members – recruitment!

I would really like to hear from you. If you are a member business then let me know how we can support you better. What do you need help with? Who would you like to meet that we can make a connection to? What barriers are you facing from government that we can represent you with? And what do you think of our events and services? What could we do better?

I’ll be attending all our events over the next few months or you can contact me at the chamber offices. I’m really looking forward to meeting you and planning what we can achieve together.

Colin Marr is chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce.

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