Banker Elected Head of Hispanic Chamber

An Oxnard bank manager has been elected the new president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Ventura County and will be installed in a ceremony scheduled for Jan. 26, the chamber announced.

Sergio Sanchez, 42, was elected to a one-year term at a board meeting Jan. 6. Sanchez, the manager of the First Interstate Bank branch in Oxnard and a member of the chamber’s board since 1991, said he will work to implement a five-year plan that the chamber’s directors approved last year.

“The big push is to continue increasing our membership and to work closely with other chambers of commerce in the area,” Sanchez said. “We would like to have members from every community in the county.”

Membership in the Hispanic chamber, which was founded in 1976, now stands at 150.

Sanchez succeeds Robert Sanchez, a Social Security administrator who stepped down after serving as the group’s president the past four years. He remains on the board as second vice president.

Also named to the board were Mena Rios, former co-owner of Ray’s Interiors in Oxnard, vice president; John Johnson, a Camarillo public accountant, treasurer; Jose Garcia, owner of Prodigy Unlimited in Thousand Oaks, secretary, and Luis Luna, member at large.

The new officers will be inducted in a ceremony scheduled for Jan. 26 at the Lobster Trap in Oxnard.

For more information, call 486-0266.