Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce Installs New Chairwoman

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Guests and members of the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce gathered at the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club on Thursday night, January 30, for the installment of their newest—and youngest ever—chairwoman Sarah Knauer.

This was the first time the Chamber of Commerce hosted its inaugural dinner at the Woman’s Club. The night offered live music from Pali Jazz Band and dinner by Knauer’s fiancé, Logan Cahoon, of MeatHead BBQ.

Sam Laganà, associate vice chancellor of Pepperdine University, emceed the event, and a number of awards were presented, including the Beautification Award to The Draycott and 2019’s Best Business Person to Fay Vahdani of Luxe Homecare.

Richard Blumenberg, the Chamber’s 2019 chair, gave a thorough Year in Review, which highlighted networking events and the Chamber’s second annual Christmas Stroll.

“And under the new leadership of our incoming chair, Sarah Knauer, we will continue to promote and assist our new businesses,” Blumenberg said.

Knauer shared that this is her fourth year on the board and that she will likely do a two-year term as chair.

“I’m very excited, we have a lot of goals that we’re going to accomplish,” Knauer commented to the Palisadian-Post. “I’m looking forward to bringing in lots more involvement from our members and getting everyone involved.”

Councilmember Mike Bonin was invited to lead the installation of the Chamber’s 2020 officers and directors, and asked the board to repeat after him in oath: “I pledge to serve in the Arnie Wishnick way, meaning that I will serve with energy, with honesty and integrity, with enthusiasm and kindness and good humor, and an unfailing dedication to the principle of making Pacific Palisades an ever better place in which to live, work and play.”

After the installment, Laganà spoke on Knauer’s journey to the Palisades.

Since graduating from Pepperdine University with a liberal arts degree, she has worked at Amalfi Estates and now resides in El Medio Bluffs with her fiancé. As a Palisadian, she enjoys hiking the Santa Monica Mountains and has proudly been to every business in Palisades Village.

Laganà then introduced Knauer to the stage for her closing remarks.

“Moving forward, I’m really excited to bring the Chamber to its full potential,” Knauer said. “I think that all of us in this room would argue that our town of Pacific Palisades is the most special part of LA, the one thing that we all have in common and love, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”

For more photos, see Page 3.