Steve Charles, formerly of Rotherham Chamber, has been recruited as business services director in a new post created following the departure of Sharon Forton who takes up a national position with the Learning and Skills Council.

Mr Charles will manage the Chamber's international training, events, and commercial operations, and Business Watch.

A new membership operations manager, Howard Forton, has been brought in to assist Maria Iliffe, who has taken up a part-time secondment, also with the LSC, for the next year.

Chamber chief executive George Cowcher said: "The new appointments and positions at the Chamber reflect our pursuit of service excellence and commercial effectiveness.

"The Learning and Skills Council is a very important procuring and policy making body, so while we are sorry to see Sharon leave, having former DNCC staff there at a national level can only be an advantage in terms of communicating what we do and what we can offer."

A new position of director of operations has been created and filled internally by Scott Knowles who will have overall responsibility for ICT, premises, finance, human resources, e-business, policy and representation and the Derbyshire Enterprise Agency.