Rachel Grace takes over reins of Port Hedland Chamber of Commerce and Industry from Claire Boyce

The Port Hedland Chamber of Commerce and Industry has welcomed its new chief executive, Rachel Grace, who has taken over the reins from Claire Boyce. Originally from Queensland, Ms Grace said it had been a natural transition into the role after having worked with the Chamber for several years. “Prior to this role, I was running my own successful consultancy for five years and in 2021 and 2022 I was actually running my business out of one of the offices upstairs,” she said. “Then that prompted me to serve on a committee last year to contribute and then this role came up.” During her tenure Ms Grace said she would be focusing on adding value for members and making the most of the business opportunities that presented themselves as Port Hedland continued to grow. “The biggest thing I’m looking to achieve is to be of service and add real value to our members,” she said. “The primary goal for me is to learn from our business community about what they need from us in order to create the right conditions for them to thrive. “This region is only going to grow over the next 10 years and one of the challenges is knowing how to work across all those different stakeholder groups and bring them together to harness the shared goals that all those organisations carry. “I want to make sure we have our members at the heart of what we do and I’d like to have kicked a few goals for the business community.” Ms Grace said thanks to previous leadership the Chamber was well set up to make the most of the growth in Port Hedland over the next 10 years. “Claire Boyce was in the role for a few years and did an absolutely amazing job. Her dedication, the expertise, the energy and the care she brought was just outstanding,” she said. “It’s an honour to take over the role from her because she’s taken the Chamber through such an important phase of its growth and she set it up really well for the next stage.” Ms Grace encouraged the Port Hedland business community to make the most of the Chamber’s resources and not to hesitate to reach out. “There’s a full calendar of events and training workshops the Chamber’s got on this year and we strongly encourage the business community to engage with those events,” she said. “We would love to have new members and we’d love to learn how to be of even better service to our current members, so please reach out.” PHCCI will host a number of events over the year, including the After Hours Business Expo at the Tradie Hub on May 3 and the Women in Business Luncheon featuring keynote speaker Federal MP Melissa Price on May 12. All tickets and be purchased via the PHCCI Facebook page or by contacting the PHCCI office.