{"id":604,"date":"2021-11-03T17:20:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T09:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/?p=604"},"modified":"2021-11-09T10:31:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T02:31:39","slug":"604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

PACIFIC GROVE \u2013 Long-time Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce President Moe Ammar is retiring after the first of year following nearly 30 years of service to the business community in the city.<\/p>\n

Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Peake said that Ammar\u2019s boundless energy and enthusiasm for promoting Pacific Grove and, in particular local businesses, is his greatest asset.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis tenure at the chamber speaks volumes,\u201d said Peake. \u201cIt\u2019s a clich\u00e9, but he\u2019s going to be hard to replace. His wealth of knowledge and drive is unparalleled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ammar made the announcement Monday. His retirement is effective Jan. 31, 2022 but he plans to remain available to support the chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop of my bucket list is to enjoy PG and the destination,\u201d said Ammar. \u201cI have always worked all the PG events. I want to sit back, relax and have more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ammar said that he will be 65 years old shortly and he has six grandchildren under the age of 7 who he wants to spend more time with along with the rest of the family.<\/p>\n

For the past 29 years, Ammar has been a fixture of the Pacific Grove business scene, checking on local proprietors and their shops constantly, attending council meetings and working events around the Monterey Peninsula. The chamber is the voice of local Pacific Grove businesses in town and represents business interests at the local and state level.<\/p>\n

Ammar was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He came to the United States in 1976 to attend college and rose up the ladder of the hotel industry after getting his degree at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 1979. He opened hotels in Dubai, Baghdad and Damascus with Sheraton Corporation before landing on the Monterey Peninsula.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to the Peninsula in 1986 to assist with the opening of the Sheraton hotel, now the Marriot \u2026 loved the area, and did not want to leave,\u201d Ammar said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

He worked at the Monterey DoubleTree Hotel for a couple of years, which is now the Portola Hotel & Spa. Ammar said that the job opened up at the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce in January 1993.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend Joe Shammas who owns PG Travel asked me to apply,\u2019 said Ammar. \u201cI applied and got the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state of local business in Pacific Grove at that time was \u201creally bad,\u201d as Fords, a store in the Holman building, Sprouse-Reitz, The Great Put On, and other stores closed, leaving the city with a 60% vacancy rate.<\/p>\n

Ammar said that today, the state of the business environment in Pacific Grove is exceptionally positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great pro-business city council and staff. We are lucky. With the ATC (American Tin Canney) Hotel, we are moving in the right direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ammar credits the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and its management team for the success of the organization through the years. Under Ammar, the chamber has weathered the economic storms of the early 1990s, 9\/11, the Great Recession, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

He said his greatest accomplishment was receiving the \u201cKey to the City of Pacific Grove\u201d in 2000 from the late Mayor Sandy Kauffman and the council.<\/p>\n

Under his leadership, the chamber has passed four ballot measures in support of local business priorities. In 2001, the Downtown Business Improvement District was formed by the chamber which benefits 230 businesses. In 2007, the chamber helped form the Hospitality Improvement District that represents and benefits 23 lodging establishments, and added the Tourist Information Center eight years ago.<\/p>\n

During Ammar\u2019s tenure, events like \u201cGood Old Days\u201d grew from two city blocks to nine, and the Pacific Grove Car Auction was introduced at the Pacific Grove Golf Links. The organization also adopted the Holman Highway between Asilomar Conference Grounds and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, volunteering to pick up trash and keep the roadway clean for the past 11 years.<\/p>\n

Ammar taught hospitality at Monterey Peninsula College for 17 years and has been married to his wife Trina for 43 years. Together they have three children and six grandchildren.<\/p>\n

The Chamber Board is meeting on Thursday to plan the state-wide search to begin the replacement process for the next president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

About Skyhigh.Vip<\/a><\/p>\n

Skyhigh.Vip<\/a> is a global institutional investor with vast interest in Arts <\/a> \/ Construction<\/a> \/ Education<\/a> \/ Business Services<\/a> \/ E-Sports <\/a>and various other growth industries.<\/p>\n

Several of its popular portfolio includes GO Chambers<\/a> which is the world’s largest business chamber listing providers with over 30,000 active chambers<\/a> as its members.<\/p>\n

Flexgigzz<\/a> is the Asia leading marketplace for freelancer service and together with SOHO Learning Hub<\/a> which is an online platform for short courses and both of them aims to be the number one provider in Asia. For growth industries such as E-Sport Authority <\/a> which is dedicated to providing independent media coverage to all E-Sport <\/a>News related from around the world and for the art world, there is Atelier Auction<\/a> which is an investable art auctioneer and being in the art scene for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PACIFIC GROVE \u2013 Long-time Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce President Moe Ammar is retiring after the first of year following nearly 30 years of service to the business community in the city. Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Peake said that Ammar\u2019s boundless energy and enthusiasm for promoting Pacific Grove and, in particular local businesses, is his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[212,55,29,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"tag-29-years","9":"tag-chamber-news","10":"tag-chamber-of-commerce","11":"tag-pacific-grove-chamber"},"yoast_head":"\nPacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PACIFIC GROVE \u2013 Long-time Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce President Moe Ammar is retiring after the first of year following nearly 30 years of service to the business community in the city. Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Peake said that Ammar\u2019s boundless energy and enthusiasm for promoting Pacific Grove and, in particular local businesses, is his […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chamber Listing Search Engine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-03T09:20:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-09T02:31:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/MCH-L-AMMAR2-1103_89524403.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abel Sigfrido\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abel Sigfrido\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/\",\"name\":\"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-03T09:20:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-09T02:31:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/4f01b63d08b67a9f4a4733f5ba12b03b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/\",\"name\":\"Chamber Listing Search Engine\",\"description\":\"Go Chambers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/4f01b63d08b67a9f4a4733f5ba12b03b\",\"name\":\"Abel Sigfrido\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22a0825b46ac7df8814aca03add9f87556be5e181f0f187c26b0caadda23b668?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22a0825b46ac7df8814aca03add9f87556be5e181f0f187c26b0caadda23b668?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Abel Sigfrido\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/author\/abel-sigfrido\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine","og_description":"PACIFIC GROVE \u2013 Long-time Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce President Moe Ammar is retiring after the first of year following nearly 30 years of service to the business community in the city. Pacific Grove Mayor Bill Peake said that Ammar\u2019s boundless energy and enthusiasm for promoting Pacific Grove and, in particular local businesses, is his […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/","og_site_name":"Chamber Listing Search Engine","article_published_time":"2021-11-03T09:20:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-09T02:31:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/MCH-L-AMMAR2-1103_89524403.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Abel Sigfrido","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abel Sigfrido","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/","name":"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years - Chamber Listing Search Engine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-11-03T09:20:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-09T02:31:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/4f01b63d08b67a9f4a4733f5ba12b03b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/latest-news\/604\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pacific Grove Chamber president to retire after 29 years"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/","name":"Chamber Listing Search Engine","description":"Go Chambers","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/4f01b63d08b67a9f4a4733f5ba12b03b","name":"Abel Sigfrido","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22a0825b46ac7df8814aca03add9f87556be5e181f0f187c26b0caadda23b668?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/22a0825b46ac7df8814aca03add9f87556be5e181f0f187c26b0caadda23b668?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Abel Sigfrido"},"url":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/author\/abel-sigfrido\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gochambers.com\/globalupdates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}