Newly sworn-in Andrew Gregson at Installation Dinner.
About 225 attendees of Thursday’s annual Arcadia Chamber of Commerce Installation Dinner (March 26, 2015) did a double-take at the man wearing a kilt who was introduced as the new President of the Chamber for 2015-16.
His name is Andrew Gregson and Chamber members can take comfort in the fact that this man responsible for protecting the interests of the Chamber for the next year is a soldier who once stood guard at Buckingham Palace and guarded Queen Elizabeth’s II crown jewels, at the Tower of London. His outfit March 26 was his military dress uniform from his seven years of service in the 1st Battalion Scots Guards (Her Majesty’s Armed Forces), where he was awarded the General Service Medal for active service in Northern Ireland and the 1991 Gulf Clasp Medal for active service in the first Gulf war.
22 year-old Guardsmen Gregson, A.W in 1993 just as the battalion deployed to Victoria barracks in Windsor for public (ceremony) duties guarding Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, St James Palace and the Tower of London.
Since then Andrew has gone on to further distinguish himself in civilian life. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) from Liverpool University with a focus on Entrepreneurship, Finance and Accounting, International Business, Leadership and Marketing.
His affinity for cars led him to Southern California where he represented major brands such as Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, and BMW, honing his Internet marketing skills.
In 2010 he became client relations director for Arcadia-based Hart, Mieras & Morris Inc. law firm, where his responsibilities include business development, advertising and marketing strategies for all five departments within the firm at all seven offices located throughout Southern California. He controls a database of 43,000, including 12,000 clients, and sets up all the company’s living trust and business seminars.
That’s also when he met his wife Tricia who partnered with him to create the innovative office suite service company called The Executive Factor at 255 E Santa Clara St., which is where he began his connection with the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce. In addition to providing some of the city’s most elegant office and conference room spaces and support services for hourly, daily, monthly or yearly rental, The Executive Factor also provides expert marketing, business development consulting, and social media and computer software training.
Andrew credits much of the early success of that business venture to the Chamber’s networking opportunities and pro-active promotional outreach.
No wonder the Arcadia Chamber named The Executive Factor the New Business Member of the Year in 2011-12. It was little surprise Andrew was quickly tapped to join the Chamber’s Executive Committee as Vice President.
Andrew has taken the volunteer position seriously, immediately offering to produce videos for any Chamber member at a bargain-basement price and helping produce the Chamber video “Arcadia’s Got it All.” He produced Chamber seminars about Microsoft Office 2010 that led to the Chamber getting free copies of that expensive software, set up personalized Excel spreadsheet training for Chamber staff at no charge, and this year he has already conducted two informative and well-attended “Flash Course” seminars on behalf of the Chamber.
If that wasn’t enough, Andrew has recruited many new members to the Arcadia Chamber, personally brought many potential members to Chamber Networking Breakfasts as his guest, purchased advertising for HMM on the Chamber’s web site and e-newsletters, and has consistently sponsored and purchased tables at Chamber events such as the Taste of Arcadia and the annual Installation Dinner.
Arcadia Chamber CEO Scott Hettrick congratulates Gregson as he takes over President ceremonial duties at Installation Dinner
The popular new Red Carpet Experience at the Installation Dinner and Taste of Arcadia the past two year was the brainchild of Andrew, and he has developed an ambitious Chamber Community Member program that could catapult Chamber membership and retail business membership value.
Andrew’s family, including Tricia and son Dylan, have also enjoyed attending many Chamber events, with Dylan serving as a self-contained focus group at Taste of Arcadia. Dylan also takes great interest in the prime Chamber VIP seats at the California Philharmonic summer concerts.
Although it means attending even more Chamber functions for Andrew, who commutes two hours each direction, Andrew is anxious to make this year one of the best yet for the Arcadia Chamber. And he looks forward to overseeing the special 50th anniversary celebration of the iconic Chamber office building in November that will culminate a three-year interior renovation and include the opening of a time capsule buried in 1965 and the burial of a new time capsule.
This new position as President of the Arcadia Chamber seems to have been Andrew’s destiny since he officially takes over on the same day as his birthday, April 1 – and that’s no joke!
