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Association News
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People & Places Presented by Association News (March 2016)
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Los Angeles, CA – March 2016 / Newsmaker Alert / Each monthly issue of Association News contains information from state and regional associations, convention bureaus, hotels and hotel chains and other meeting facilities.

CVBs/DMOs
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Association News (March 2016)Mary Fugere has been promoted to director of the Hampton (Virginia) Convention & Visitor Bureau, where she had been previously serving as interim director since September 2014. Fugere has held various positions at the bureau, including director of media and community relations and group sales manager.

The Frisco (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau has promoted Ryan Callison to director of marketing and communications and has hired Wesley Lucas as communications manager. Callison has been with the bureau since 2014, and Lucas most recently served as communications coordinator for the Grapevine (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Sybil Davis has been named national accounts manager at the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, where she will be booking international, multicultural and religious meeting and convention groups for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and hotels in the greater Philadelphia area. Davis most recently was senior sales executive for the Renaissance/ Washington, D.C., Downtown.

Tangier Pritchett has been appointed national sales manager for SMERF groups at the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau. Pritchett was previously the bureau’s sports marketing manager. Visit Omaha (Nebraska) recently added two new members to its convention services team.

Janelle Armstrong has been named director of convention sales, and Kelsey McGreer has been hired as a sales and marketing coordinator. Armstrong previously served as a recruitment and marketing manager for the American Red Cross. McGreer’s experience in the hospitality industry includes an internship at Disney World and at the Lincoln (Nebraska) Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Hospitality & Suppliers

Omni Hotels & Resorts has appointed Peter Strebel as its chief marketing officer and senior vice-president of sales. Strebel is a longtime veteran of Omni and previously served as the company’s senior vice-president of operations. Strebel also formerly worked for Wyndham Worldwide in positions ranging from chief marketing officer to president. Also at Omni, Mark Wykes has been appointed vice-president of hotel sales and marketing. A 30-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Wykes previously served as Omni’s regional director of sales and marketing as well as its director of global sales. Before Omni, he was the director of sales for the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas.

Best Western Hotels & Resorts has promoted three members of its executive leadership team. Dorothy Dowling has been promoted to senior vice-president and chief marketing officer, Mark Straszynski is its new senior-vice president and chief financial officer, and Greg Adams now serves as its vice-president and chief digital officer.

Oliver Bonke has been hired as Loews Hotels & Resorts’ first chief commercial officer. In this newly created position, Bonke will oversee the strategic growth of the Loews brands and take ownership of sales, marketing, technology and public affairs. He previously served as chief commercial officer of the Americas for the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Sarka Takovich has been named general manager of the Marker Waterfront Resort in Key West, Florida. Takovichmost recently served as the general manager of the 21c Museum in Lexington, Kentucky.

Matt Cowden has been named general manager of the 21c Museum Hotel in Oklahoma City, currently under construction and expected to open this summer. Cowden has more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry and previously served as general manager for Starwood Hotels.

Jason Heath has been promoted to general manager of the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, Pennsylvania, effective July 1. Heath currently is managing director of resorts sales and revenue management for Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, which operates the Hershey Lodge.

In Bend, Oregon, Todd Cooley has been named general manager of the Riverhouse Hotel & Convention Center, which is undergoing a $10 million renovation and will be renamed Riverhouse on the Deschutes in coming months. Cooley most recently worked at the Salishan Spa & Golf Resort in Gleneden Beach, Oregon.

Ryan Leach has been appointed general manager of the Shade/ Redondo Beach in Southern California, expected to open this spring. Leach most recently served as general manager of the Club Med Peisey-Vallandry Resort in Peisey-Nancroix, France.

Ash Awasthi has been named hotel manager of the Grand Hyatt/New York in Midtown Manhattan. He previously served as director of rooms at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Victor Freeman has been named hotel manager of the New York Hilton Midtown in Manhattan. He previously was general manager of the Carlton Hotel, also located in New York City.

In anticipation of its July 1 opening, the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center has hired Stephan Meier as general manager and Bill Hume as director of sales and marketing. Meier most recently served as general manager of the Embassy Suites by Hilton/Denver Downtown–Convention Center. Hume previously worked at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado.

Gild Hall, a Thompson Hotel in New York City, has named Jonathon Goldberg as hotel manager and Ileana Acosta as director of sales and marketing. Goldberg most recently served as director of operations at Thompson Hotels’ Smyth, also in New York City. Acosta previously served as area sales manager for Hersha Hospitality.

Georg Garnitschnig has been named director of sales and marketing for the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego. A 20-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Garnitschnig’s roles have included Fairmont Hotel & Resort’s regional director of sales and marketing in the Southeast United States, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America; director of sales and marketing at the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Aventura, Florida; and director of sales and marketing at the Hilton/Barbados.

Adam Schomaker has been named director of sales and marketing at the LondonHouse Chicago, which is scheduled to open this spring with 452 guest rooms and nearly 25,000 square feet of meeting space. Schomaker most recently worked with the Godfrey Hotel Chicago.

Construction & Expansion

The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio has completed a $325 million expansion, increasing its footprint to 1.6 million square feet. Located on the downtown Riverwalk, the convention center offers 514,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space; 86,500 square feet of column-free, multipurpose space; and 70 meeting spaces, including divisible breakout rooms.

The Four Seasons Resort/Lanai has reopened following a multimillion-dollar transformation, which included updates to its 217 guest rooms, lobbies and seating areas. Other resort offerings include new dining and pool experiences, a spa and wellness program, luxury retail boutiques and the 18-hole, ocean-view Jack Nicklaus Signature Manele Golf Course. For meetings and events, the resort features 66,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including a newly refurbished conference center.

On the heels of a five-year, $279 million transformation, the Cobo Center in Detroit recently welcomed the North American International Auto Show, which experienced record crowds. The facility now offers more than 700,000 square feet of exhibit space, and a terrace called Cobo Square is scheduled to open this spring for various programming.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a $1 billion redevelopment proposal for the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The project is expected to increase Javits by 1.2 million square feet, bringing its total to 3.3 million square feet of space. Plans include a 60,000-squarefoot ballroom, a new green roof terrace and a four-level, 480,000-square-foot truck garage. Construction is expected to begin late this year.

The Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Kohala Coast of Hawaii’s Big Island has completed a renovation of its Palace Tower. The 62-acre resort offers 1,241 guest rooms, more than 235,000 square feet of meeting space, two championship golf courses and nine tennis courts.

The Hyatt on Main in Green Bay, Wisconsin, has officially been rebranded as the Hyatt Regency/Green Bay. The downtown, 241-room hotel is connected to the KI Convention Center and provides 43,000 square feet of meeting space.

And Finally...

Visit Anaheim (California), the destination marketing organization for Orange County and the city of Anaheim, has donated $10,000 to the NAMM Foundation, a nonprofit organization supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants and whose mission is to advance music education. In January, the 115th annual NAMM Show, a global music-industry trade show, welcomed exhibitors and registrants to Anaheim.

This current issue of Association News can be viewed in digital format online by clicking here.

About Schneider Publishing
Schneider Publishing is the parent company of Association News, America’s most-read magazine for association executives, and SportsTravel, the sports world’s event magazine. In addition to Meetings Quest, Schneider Publishing organizes the TEAMS Conference & Expo, the world’s largest gathering of sports-event organizers, TEAMS ’16 will be held September 26–29, 2016, in Atlantic City. The group travel markets served by Schneider Publishing generate 106 million hotel room nights annually.

For press information, please contact Ann Shepphird, or call 310-577-3700.

Association News, Meetings Quest, SportsTravel and TEAMS are registered trademarks of Schneider Publishing.

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Publishing Dates: 03/08/16 – 05/08/16
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