Sara Williams took over as the Chief Executive of North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce in November 2011 and has since overseen the creation of the powerful Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce group. Her aim is to create a welcoming organising every local business wants to join and making Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire a place full of prosperity and opportunity.
Previously she was Director of Enterprise at St Helens Chamber. Responsible for a team of talented people helping change the culture of enterprise in St Helens – from working with young people in schools through to helping businesses facing tough decisions.
Sara is a strong advocate for the private sector taking a lead in all aspects of economic development. She believes that Chambers of Commerce provide an excellent platform for engaging with and supporting businesses to grow and prosper. This comes from having run her own small arts consultancy business and coming from a family of entrepreneurs, some more successful than others.
Sara has a wealth of experience working with the private sector to develop services in response to their needs, as well as a proven track record of lobbying and representing businesses. Previously, Sara has worked in marketing and community development as well as in museums and galleries. She originally trained as a museum curator at Manchester University after a first degree in Medieval History at University College London.
Sara has been a Governor of Liverpool John Moores University and is currently on the Board of Governors of Staffordshire University and a non-Executive Director of the highly regarded New Vic Theatre based in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Sara splits her time between Staffordshire and Liverpool and returns to her home town of Nottingham, where she went to school at Nottingham High School for Girls, on a regular basis. She has recently got married to her partner of 23 years and they have three grown up children between them. In her spare time, Sara enjoys gardening (her Liverpool garden is part of the National Garden Scheme), sewing (she has a passion for clothes), and salsa dancing.
