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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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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.
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