Ronnie Collins
Collins is Visit Anaheim’s new chief sales officer (CSO). Since joining Visit Anaheim in 2023, he has seen numerous successes, including redeploying Visit Anaheim’s meeting sales team to better service local hotels and launching several new programs, including an incentive program for hotels to generate group business. In his new role, Collins will further elevate Visit Anaheim’s sales operations and gain oversight of Visit Anaheim’s international tourism sales strategy.
Christine Cenicola
Impact XM brings in Cenicola as senior vice president, people and culture. Drawing from her extensive background in business transformation, change management and leadership development, Cenicola with work with CEO Jared Pollacco to grow the organization by recruiting top-tier talent and steering the company through future acquisitions and integrations. She will also spearhead initiatives for leadership development, career management and global mobility to create an environment for employees to feel empowered and to excel in their careers.
Melissa Green
Green joins The Davenport Hotel Collection, a portfolio of five upscale hotels in Spokane, Washington, as vice president and area managing director. She most recently served as area general manager at Hyatt Regency Boston/Cambridge and Hotel Viking where she achieved budgeted revenues of over $70 million and was recognized as General Manager of the Year by the Massachusetts Lodging Association in 2023. In her new role, she will head community relations and operations, leading the hotel teams to maximize guest satisfaction and revenue generation, while also overseeing current renovations at The Historic Davenport Hotel and The Davenport Lusso, soon to debut as The Louie.
Teipo Brown, Jr.
Discover Santa Clara welcomes Brown, Jr. as director of sales and destination services. In this role, he will lead all sales efforts, including oversight of market and channel strategy, customer identification and key account development, partnerships and tradeshow management. Through these efforts, he will support increasing the funnel of business opportunities and room night production and elevating the destination’s status. He has held director of sales roles with the San Francisco Peninsula (DMO), the Tri-Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau and Marriott International properties in Oakland, Emeryville, South San Francisco and San Mateo.
Federico Greppi
Marriott International appoints Greppi as chief operations officer (COO) for the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA). In his most recent position as chief financial officer and head of franchise operations and owner relations of Marriott International in CALA, he played an instrumental role in driving growth. He brings a deep understanding of the Caribbean and Latin American markets, and has held various positions at Marriott’s headquarters, the Americas and CALA divisions, with a career spanning over two decades.
Peyton Canna and Jessica Gonzales
Hyatt Centric Downtown Denver makes two leadership appointments to its sales team.
Canna is appointed as group sales manager. She brings a passion for building relationships with clients and ensuring seamless guest experiences from initial contact to the conclusion of their events or stays. She began her hospitality career with an internship at The Westin Hilton Head Island Resort & Spa, and later relocated to Denver, where she built her career, moving through roles such as assistant rooms operations manager and sales coordinator.
Gonzales takes on the role of senior catering and event sales manager. She brings 20 years of event experience and a deep understanding of Colorado’s event landscape. Born and raised in Colorado, she began her career as an event operations manager at the Marriott Denver Tech Center, and later served as director of sales at The Estes Park Resort. In her new role, she will collaborate with the team to ensure that every event is executed flawlessly, drawing from her passion for guiding clients through the event planning process and creatively helping to enhance their visions while upholding the highest standards.
Heike Mahmoud
The Estrel Berlin, Europe’s largest hotel, entertainment and congress complex, welcomes Mahmoud to its leadership team as chief operating officer (COO). As the complex looks towards an expansion with the opening of the Estrel Tower by the end of 2025, Mahmoud will be at the forefront of managing the expansion while overseeing existing operations. She earlier worked at The Estrel as sales and marketing manager from 1998 to 2001 and later moved to the Berlin Congress and Tourism GmbH (visitBerlin) from 2001 to 2018, where she played an instrumental role in building it into one of the world’s most successful convention bureaus.
Violaine Diogene
Atlanta’s newly renovated Hotel Granada appoints Diogene to the role of director of sales and marketing. Throughout her career, she has gained extensive experience across areas including event planning, sales and catering. She has held positions such as director of catering sales at Hilton Marietta Conference Center and, most recently served as director of sales and marketing at Hotel Colee in Atlanta. She has earned multiple awards, including sales manager of the year and director of catering of the year for Hilton and as sales manager of the year for multiple Sheraton hotels.
Yagmur Quillin
Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina welcomes Quillin as wellbeing experience manager for groups. In this role, Quillin curates a menu of new experiences for groups, including outdoor recreation activities, culinary and cocktail classes, give-back experiences and more. Her new role spotlights the property’s dedication to wellbeing and desire to provide guests with unique experiences that build their sense of wellbeing. Quillin looks forward to creating group experiences that provide a holistically positive experiences for guests and continuing to build the range of wellbeing experiences available.
Kurt Schwan
Schwan is appointed as director of sales and marketing for the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta. He will draw from his 20 years of experience in luxury, convention and lifestyle brands in the Atlanta market as he leads sales and marketing efforts and oversees and manages all aspects of group, catering and transient business segments for the hotel. In addition to leading sales strategy, he will establish market deployment for special corporate, leisure sales, association, citywide, social, sports and entertainment markets.
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