Page 14 - Special Feature.indd

PROFILES

“I had some people tell me don’t come to
Cambridge because you can’t break into
that market.”
He quickly discovered this wasn’t the case
a ter becoming a Chamber member.
“It was an opportunity, I thought, to get to
know a business community and honestly,
I didn’t know how good an opportunity it
was,” says Terry, who served as Chamber
board president from 1993 to 1994 and
following a short break rejoined the board a
few years later where he has remained as a
member of its Executive Committee serving
as treasurer.
Shortly a ter joining the Chamber, it
wasn’t long before this self-proclaimed
‘introverted accountant’ became part of the
organization’s Member Services Committee
– one of many committees the Chamber
had at the time – which was responsible
for organizing its Business A ter Hours (now
Chamber Social) events.
“It was the most visible part of the what the
Chamber did,” says Terry, referring to these
monthly events in which local business
leaders gather following the workday to
mingle and network. “I eventually became
Chair of that committee and began running
the Business A ter Hours which led to a seat
Long-time Chamber board treasurer Terry Kratz has been involved with the organization since
the 1990s. on the Chamber board.”
At that time, he says the Chamber was
Terry Kratz welcomed operating out of its former office at the
Allan Reuter Centre on King Street East in
a new opportunity downtown Preston, which opened in 1966
and prior to Cambridge’s amalgamation
in 1973 had housed the mayor’s office,
council chambers, administration offices,
police, and fire departments. The Chamber
Taking a chance can sometimes “I hired a secretary and with another took over the space used by the police
pay off, just ask Terry Kratz. EY colleague (Mary Ann Gaskin) sitting department around 1980 and remained at
over in a corner of the office, and here
When he arrived in Cambridge to set up we were. I had three or four clients in that location until moving into its current
a local office of Ernst & Young (now EY Cambridge at the time, not very many.” home at 750 Hespeler Rd. in 2001.
Canada) in 1989, Terry admits he didn’t “The Chamber rented, for very little money,
know what to expect from this “new” He says joining the Cambridge Chamber a boardroom and a few offices,” says Terry,
business strategy implemented by the of Commerce was a strategic move that noting the accommodations in the former
accounting giant to expand into smaller made sense at the time to integrate town offices were extremely basic. “It was
communities. himself into the local business just a cinderblock building.”
community.
“I was the first one in the whole Terry also fondly recalls the ‘colourful’ visitor
organization to try this, so I guess I was “All of a sudden I went from being an services trailer the Chamber operated at
the guinea pig,” laughs Terry, a partner introverted accountant, which I probably this time – not far from its current location -
at HFK McRae & Wilson LLP, before still am, to being forced to become a to promote local tourism.
describing how he set up shop in the salesperson and grow a business,” says “It was only seasonal and operated during
upper of level of an old Victorian house Terry, admitting he had some trepidation the summer,” he says, noting at this time
at 200 Hespeler Rd. prior to arriving here.

14 Spring 2024 www.cambridgechamber.com