A change in leadership at the Lethbridge & District Exhibition is taking its first steps towards rectifying its past financial troubles.
In January, the City of Lethbridge entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Exhibition to support the century old organization and the newly built a agri-food hub and trade centre, with conditional approval from the province — something they received just last Wednesday from the Alberta government.
This MOU will now allow for a change in the governance structure of the LDE, which resulted in the former board of directors to step down and the appointment of new leadership.
The new board is made up of city and county of Lethbridge officials including, city manager Lloyd Brierly, who is taking on the role of co-chair alongside Cole Beck, the chief administration officer of the county.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Brierly explained the City of Lethbridge will also look to become the sole voting shareholder of the LDE.
This means beginning the redemption process of refunding other shareholders, something he anticipates will be complete at the end of the month.
Beck added that through this transition, one of their main goals is to maintain business continuity, something the newly appointed acting chief executive officer, Kim Gallucci, is anticipated to help with.
In order to take on the interim role, Gallucci has agreed to take a leave of absence from his current role of general manager at the ENMAX Centre, however he brings knowledge and experience from the event industry into his new position.
“Our focus for the next year is working through operations,” said Brierly. “Through Kim’s leadership and guidance, we’ll look at the current revenue and expense gap that exists to position the organization well for the future.”
In addition, a third-party review is anticipated to get underway shortly, which will look at how the LDE ended up in the position they did, what takeaways can be assumed or implemented in the future and what will happen with the old pavilions.
Beck went on to add, “I think it’s just important that we have that representation so that we can let the community, the region and the province know that we are and remain open for business.”
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