File Photo: Lee ClanceyLee Clancey, current president and chief executive officer of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, has announced that she will retire from that position, effective Sept. 1. Clancey was also the first woman elected as mayor in Cedar Rapids, a position she held for six years.

“I believe that women have the potential to be the kind of leaders who will shift paradigms, encourage and mentor others, and celebrate diversity,” Clancey said during the 2007 Women’s Equality Day celebration in Cedar Rapids. “It’s long past time for equal representation with women at the political table, in corporate American board rooms and in leadership positions at all levels. Not only are women wanted to run the nation, they are desperately needed to run it in order to bring important issues to the forefront.”

The chamber’s board of directors is in the process of establishing a search committee that will be led by Brad Hart, secretary for the board and an attorney with Bradley & Riley PC. Officials are not ruling out the possibility of using an executive recruitment firm to assist in “a comprehensive, national search.” Clancey will assist in the search effort, according to Allen Witt, chairman-elect of the board. He added that the group anticipates hiring a successor by late summer.