The Lawrence chamber of commerce is planning to hire a new leader by late December or early January, said Michele Hammann, chair of the organization’s board of directors.

The time frame allows the incoming president and CEO to work alongside Larry McElwain, the current leader who is set to retire at the end of January.

“I think our timeline is pretty aggressive, but I think it’s completely doable,” Hammann said.

McElwain, 70, announced in May his intention to retire as the leader of the chamber of commerce, which serves as an advocacy organization for Lawrence area businesses and aims to promote economic growth. He has served as president and CEO of the chamber since 2014.

“I just feel like it is a good time for some new leadership,” he said at the time. “I think we are poised for someone to step in and take it to the next level, and I’m all about that.”

The board recently formed a transition committee to craft a job description for advertising purposes.

Hammann described the committee members as “key stakeholders” of the chamber, including chamber members, donors and chamber leadership. She declined to name the committee members to avoid people reaching out to them before the position is advertised.

The committee is handling the hiring process internally, but it has brought in some human resource consultants to help, Hammann said.

The committee is working to finalize the job description and to advertise it by the end of September. It expects to begin interviewing by the end of October.

“We’ve been blessed with this unique opportunity to have time to think about what the future of the chamber looks like and who we want to be leading it,” Hammann said. “We’ve been really lucky to be able to not have to run around and find somebody really fast to replace (McElwain), but to carefully craft what we are looking for.”