by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com

Kathleen Fariss, hired last month as Claremont Chamber of Commerce’s new chief executive officer, has since been settling in her corner office at 205 N. Yale Ave.

The 58-year-old Fontana resident is a certified coach with the International Coaching Federation, a leadership coach with WiLD  Leaders Inc., and personal and professional growth coach with Boon Health. She’s also the former CEO of Fariss Coaching and Consulting, a business she founded with her husband Mike Fariss.

She’s happy in new role as the leader of the 100-year-old chamber.

“I feel like it’s a lot of responsibility,” Fariss said. “And I feel like I’m up to the task.”

Fariss began her new job on February 10, succeeding interim CEO John Neiuber, who stepped in for Randy Lopez after he stepped down in November 2024.

Fariss said she has big shoes to fill following Lopez. She plans to take charge using her own servant leadership style, with kindness at the forefront.

“When you’re kind, you’re also holding yourself accountable for whatever you decide to take on,” she said. “And you’re also going to invite others into their own leadership and hold themselves accountable. I’m going to be a good steward of this organization and listen to those that are leading alongside me, our board, especially John [Neiuber] and our [city] council. I’m going to be fair because I believe strongly in equal access.”

Fariss plans to expand the chamber’s footprint by attracting more businesses and fostering more partnerships with surrounding businesses. Her top objectives include focusing on the chamber’s inner workings to ensure her staff has what it needs, listening to constituents, managing the chamber’s budget, and filling gaps between the chamber and the community.

Despite what she called a “lousy upbringing,” Fariss has striven to never become a statistic of underachievement. “I didn’t want to be a data point on a piece of paper,” she said. “And I could have been.

“I grew up in the Inland Empire. My education came from the streets … I ended up graduating from a continuation high school, which allowed me to have access to lots of support and to be able to take care of myself, take care of my community. I got a job. I knew that education was important. And again, going back to the only thing I knew back then was be kind, share your voice, and surround yourself with the community. So, I feel like that’s brought me full circle to where I am today.”

Her early jobs included Brunswick Upland Bowl — now Bowlero — in 1987. There she learned how to network and form lasting partnerships. It’s also where she met her husband, Mike Fariss.

From there, Fariss held various positions in the private sector, at public and private universities including Claremont Graduate University and its Drucker School of Management, and with the City of Fontana. Most of her jobs were rooted in networking. She earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from the University of La Verne in 2005, and add a master’s in leadership and management from ULV in 2008.

“We’re here to serve you, come on in,” she said of her new job at Claremont Chamber of Commerce. “Whether you’re a nonprofit, startup entrepreneur, at the end of the day, leading is leading. It doesn’t make a difference what industry you come from; we can serve you.”