DURING the Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting on Wednesday, chamber board president Joseph Guerrero announced that Lee Tenorio is the new chamber executive director.
Born and raised on Saipan, Tenorio is a Mount Carmel School alumnus who studied abroad before returning home to Saipan in 2017.
He has experience in business management in Seattle and was employed by Triple J Saipan.
Tenorio also served as the former project manager at the Office of the Mayor of Saipan and as a member of the Liberation Day Committee.
He currently serves in various capacities in the local community, including as a member of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council board and the Stellar Marianas board.
Before taking on the chamber’s executive director position, Tenorio most recently served as the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. communications specialist.
He succeeds as chamber executive director Maxine Laszlo who is now an independent business advisor working with the Small Business Development Center.
“I can only provide added value to what has already been established,” Tenorio said. “Everybody before me has already built the foundation. It’s a matter of carrying that and developing it and making it even better.”
He added, “The ability to influence progress, advancement, and innovation throughout this organization, I think that will be one of the added values that I’m looking forward to.”
Asked about his priorities as he assumes his new role, Tenorio said, “[As] you would imagine, [the priorities are] trying to get over our challenges, which, right now, [is] the [Covid-19] pandemic… and then also something a little bit more drastic as our labor workforce that we will probably be experiencing some challenges with in the near future. Hopefully…some further solution can present itself then.”
Tenorio will join Franco M. Santos and Noelani P.A. McMahon on the chamber staff.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization whose 142 members include sole proprietors, large resort hotels, service companies, tour agencies, insurance firms, and construction companies.
Lee Tenorio, left, poses with outgoing Saipan Chamber of Commerce executive director Maxine Laszlo.
Photo by K-Andrea Evarose S. Limol
