Table Rock chamber hires executive director

The Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce hired an Ozarks businesswoman to fill its top vacancy.

A search committee commissioned by the Kimberling City chamber chose Sheila Thomas for the job. Most recently serving as executive director of the Ozarks Rivers Heritage Foundation, Thomas takes on the chamber role April 7, according to a news release.

Thomas succeeds three-year Director Dave Liebenow, who resigned from the post March 1 to perform small-business consulting work, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Prior to her role at Ozarks Rivers Heritage Foundation, Thomas served as a project director for a U.S. Small Business Administration grant in southwest Missouri and was a real estate broker in the area for nearly two decades.

“Sheila is extremely skilled in areas of leadership and organizational development and has vast knowledge of the area," said Bob Cox, chamber search committee chairman and owner of The Harbor on Indian Point, in the release.

The nonprofit Ozarks Rivers Heritage Foundation recently stopped offering tours of Table Rock Dam and ended its operation of the Dewey Short Visitor Center gift shop after the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers ended its joint-management agreement with the foundation in September, according to a Branson Tri-Lake News report. According to the article, the Army Corps ended all similar agreements with nonprofits nationwide after finding the arrangements were illegal; the foundations were taking park use fees in exchange for services, but the Corps discovered the fees were required by law to go to the U.S. Treasury.

"I loved my most recent work with Ozarks Rivers Heritage Foundation, but due to changes to a partnership agreement made by the Corps of Engineers, the organization has had to adjust," Thomas said in the release. "These changes allow me to leave the position for this new opportunity, without leaving anyone in a predicament, and also to continue to work for the betterment of the Table Rock Lake area."