Woodstock Chamber head hired for new city executive position

Woodstock Chamber of Commerce President Danielle Gulli will fill one of two newly created executive positions within the city of Woodstock, city officials announced Tuesday.

She starts in the new role Dec. 31, according to a news release from the city.

Gulli, in addition to leading the chamber, also is president of the Real Woodstock branding partnership between the Chamber and the city, a role she will maintain as the Chamber undergoes a transition in its leadership and the city assesses its public relations strategies under its new staff structure.

She also has worked for Marriott and United Airlines, and operated a retail business on the historic Woodstock Square, according to the release.

Her new title with the city will be executive director of business development. She will be tasked with overseeing the development of strategy and growth objectives for the city’s economic development, recreation and Opera House departments, while also leading the city’s communications and marketing initiatives.

The position was one of two executive roles the city created and budgeted this year in a move that was controversial at points with some members of the Woodstock City Council as well as city department heads.

The other is a new new strategy and planning director who will oversee the information technology, human resources and building and zoning departments. The city has yet to announce a hire for that role.

A third city executive position, director of operations, was also added to the city’s organizational chart, but that job, which would oversee the departments of public works, finance and the library, remains unfunded and unfilled for now.

Gulli said she is both excited for the new role but emotional about leaving the Chamber, which went from having only a part-time staffer when she started in 2015 to now having two full-time staffers in addition to the executive director. Gulli spent about 30 hours per week on Chamber duties and another 10 hours for the Real Woodstock organization.

“The Chamber is my baby,” she said, adding that the new job with the city “feels like the next natural transition in being able to not just have an impact here for the Chamber but for the entire city.”

“Danielle is known and respected throughout the community and has worked closely with city staff and officials over the past several years,” City Manager Roscoe Stelford said in the release. “She brings exceptional skills to this new position and will be a strong asset to the city of Woodstock.”

The Chamber’s board of directors approved a job listing and search for a new executive director position that will be posted publicly shortly, Gulli said.

Her guidance of Real Woodstock was credited as instrumental in the city’s successful application to T-Mobile in a grant contest that Woodstock won this year, gaining $3 million in prizes and investment from T-Mobile, including hot spot internet devices for low-income public school students and improvements in the area’s 5G wireless signal capacity.