Last week the Greater San Diego Business Association bid farewell to its board president of the past two years, Jeffery Wergeles, as he stepped down from his position to make way for new leadership in the organization, which has seen a good amount of growth and success under his leadership.

“I don’t look at it as my accomplishments, but our accomplishments,” Wergeles said in an interview with the Gay and Lesbian Times. “We put a board together that was pretty spectacular and did some great stuff. We got financial solvency, we’ve increased attendance at events, and we pulled off the Expo. This board was just an amazing group of people who came together and got it done.”

Mary Golden of The Center for Health and Well Being will be assuming leadership of the board, as its new president. The other newly elected officers include vice president, David Knepp of San Diego Chiropractic Group, secretary, Tim Holmberg of Midway Jeep Chrysler, and treasurer, Neil Khaner of Salomon Smith Barney.

“We’re going to miss him; he’s been great,” said Joyce Marieb, the GSDBA’s executive director. “Just his ability to focus on the goals. He has great organizational skills. He knows how to run the meetings so that the committees of the organizations really do the work, … which is really good because it saves everybody’s time and the work gets done.”

Wergeles says that while he doesn’t plan on doing any committee work for the time being, “I’m just going to be a good citizen involved in attending the events and networking and having a good time and using the facilities of the GSDBA.”

The election also brought William Lopez and Sandra Marciari onto the board as new members. Lopez has served on the GSDBA’s business development and Expo committees and Marciari has been active with the organization’s membership committee.

Lopez served on the board briefly four years ago, but stepped down from his position. However, he said that in the past years the board has made a number of improvements, and that led to him wanting to run for the position again this year.

“It’s a great group of people,” Lopez said. “I have served on a couple of committees over the past couple of years before deciding to run back on the board, so I have worked closely with many of the board members and executive director and that kind of encouraged me to run again.”

Lopez, whose company, Alternative Strategies, offers a full-service agency that provides advertising, public relations and creative services, including graphic and web design, says he plans to use his marketing experience, “to increase awareness throughout San Diego County and increase membership beyond the traditional gay businesses that it is made up of currently, so expanding the membership base to larger companies and therefore creating some corporate sponsorship opportunities.”

Marciari, who opened her law office eight months ago, called about getting involved six months ago and has been on the membership committee ever since. She saw joining the GSDBA as an opportunity to network and get more involved in the community.

“We’re the third largest organization in the country,” Marciari said. “What I want to do, from the membership committee, is really increase the organization so that we’re the largest organization, the largest chamber of commerce organization in the country. The GSDBA has a great deal of potential and I think being number one would be great.”

Marieb also plans to put Marciari’s legal background, particularly in the field of employment law, to good use now that she is on the board and believes that her knowledge will be “very helpful to me and the members. I think we are going to be able offer something and issue warnings about things they need to know for their businesses.”

Also re-elected to the GSDBA board for their second terms were Rick Bernardo, Victoria Garcia and John McCusker. Michelle Burkart, Michele Fortunati and Drew Cross will be serving one more year in their current terms. For more information about the GSDBA, call (619) 296-4543.