The search for a new Lawrence Chamber of Commerce chief executive has been narrowed to two men.

Shirley Martin-Smith, co-chair of the chamber’s search committee, confirmed Friday the group had picked two finalists for the position, which became open in November when former president and CEO Bill Sepic left to take a similar position in Lansing, Mich.

Martin-Smith declined to name the finalists. She said both were men, had worked on the staffs of chambers of commerce and were from the Midwest. One of the candidates is from Kansas, she said.

The next step, Martin-Smith said, is to bring the candidates to Lawrence for private meetings in April. The meetings will include conversations with officials from all three universities in the county and “a lot of key community leaders,” Martin-Smith said.

“We think they’re both good candidates, but the input we’ll receive from those meetings will matter quite a bit in our final selection,” Martin-Smith said.

Martin-Smith said the chamber wouldn’t meet its original deadline of finding a new CEO by its April 11 annual meeting. Instead, she said the earliest the chamber’s board of directors would make an offer to a candidate would be the end of April.

Martin-Smith said scheduling conflicts, partly related to Kansas University basketball and spring break, were the main reasons for the delay.

She said missing the original deadline wasn’t a problem because the chamber continued to operate smoothly under interim CEO Jean Milstead, a retired Douglas County banker.

“It would have been nice to have someone to introduce at the annual meeting, but we’ve always been adamant that this isn’t about finding someone by the annual meeting,” Martin-Smith said. “It is about finding the right someone.”

The 13-member search committee last month narrowed the field of 100 applicants to five. Martin-Smith said the committee was impressed with the two finalists, in large part, because they both stressed the importance of economic development.

“They’re very articulate about the value of economic development,” Martin-Smith said. “We’re looking for someone who can really communicate that value and communicate what our mission is to a variety of people.”