East Midlands Chamber has unveiled Jean Mountain as its President for 2015/16.

Jean has run the Supreme Rubber Stamp Company, of Selston, Nottinghamshire, since 1985 and successfully grown the business into a market leader with clients such as Rolls Royce, Toyota, the NHS and schools across the UK.

She is also a director of a print management company which looks after corporate and blue chip clients such as Waterstones, HMV and Ryman’s, and owns and runs a designer handbag business that has developed to include many corporate clients.

Jean has been a Chamber Board Director since 1997 and was the founder of Enterprising Women, a networking group aimed at empowering women in business through a variety of both business and social events.

She is Director of the East Midlands Business Crime Forum, which represents more than 80,000 businesses across the East Midlands, advising how to reduce and prevent business crime. She is the founder, Director and former Vice-Chair of the National Business Crime Forum and is also the British Chambers of Commerce’s national representative for business crime.

Jean lives in Mansfield Woodhouse with her husband, Martin.

She said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be taking the reins as Chamber President.

“My key aim for the year is to continue the good work my predecessor, Liz Fothergill, has done in flying the flag for the East Midlands and ensuring this region remains a trailblazer for the rest of the UK.

“We provide the country with its manufacturing spine. We have real, traditional strengths in automotive, rail and aviation manufacturing and are forging new reputations in low-carbon, hi-tech manufacturing and biosciences.

“We boast a strong professional services sector, a thriving construction sector and a burgeoning creative industries sector, among others. We have businesses here, big and small, which operate successfully in regional, national and international markets.

“This is what the Chamber needs to champion.”

At the AGM, outgoing President Liz Fothergill CBE paid tribute to Chamber Board Directors Ian Morgan, of Trent Barton, Phil Stanyer, of Planned consultancy’, Nick Holloway, of HSBC, and former University of Derby Vice-Chancellor Professor John Coyne, who have all stood down. She also thanked Chamber members, fellow Board members and staff for their support during her term of office.

She said: “The main theme of my year in office was to really fly the flag for the East Midlands as a great place to do business.

“We have plenty of things to be proud of in this region and we must not be afraid to shout from the rooftops about how we are truly the heartbeat of the UK economy.”

At the AGM, it was announced that Geoff Poyzer, Managing Director of North Midlands Construction’s Highways division, will serve as Jean’s Vice-President for the year, before succeeding her as President in 2016.

And existing Board Directors Dr Darren Clark, Rob Mayo, James Fry, Richard Horsley, David Merifield, Ian Greenaway and Richard Wilkins, were all re-elected unopposed to the Board.