Davis Meyer and Sean Smith
Visit Greater Palm Springs makes two new appointments to support its government relations and economic development initiatives.
Meyer is promoted to the role of vice president of government and industry relations. She has been with Visit Greater Palm Springs in 2017, most recently holding the position of senior director of community engagement. She will continue to focus on overall partner investment in marketing programs, education and events. In addition, her role is now expanded to oversee new economic development responsibilities and government relations at the local, county and state levels.
Smith joins Visit Greater Palm Springs as the director of economic development. He will drive strategy and implement business attraction and growth for the area. Within this, he will focus on diversifying business sectors, attracting new businesses and strategically marketing and branding the region as a premier location for economic growth and development.
Scott Little
Little takes on the role of managing director at Salamander Middleburg. Most recently, Little served as vice president and general manager of Harbor View Hotel on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. He brings ample experience in numerous hospitality leadership roles and a range of expertise across luxury operations, community and investor relations, real estate development, preservation, finance and acquisition.
Gregg Nielsen
Jumeirah Group names Nielsen global director of sales. He brings over a decade of experience in luxury hospitality across sales and marketing, which he will draw from to drive the global luxury hospitality company’s ethos of outstanding customer service at its 26 properties across the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Prior to this role, Nielsen established himself as a top performing, tenured senior account manager at Virtuoso.
Jessica Sherbert
Sherbert is appointed as director of sales at The Grove Resort & Water Park. She has been working in Orlando since 2011, holding multiple director positions with full-service properties within both Hilton and Marriott portfolio hotels, most recently as director of sales and marketing at the Marriott Village Orlando. She will draw on her extensive sales experience and knowledge of the Orlando market in her new responsibility for all sales activities, including maintaining and establishing relationships with key accounts for The Grove Resort & Water park.
Mike Waterman
Waterman takes on the role of president and CEO for Visit Anaheim. He brings over 30 years of leadership and sales experience in hospitality, previously serving as chief sales officer at Visit Orlando. He will now serve as the strategic and visionary leader responsible for developing, directing and overseeing Visit Anaheim, and will lead the DMO’s efforts to draw conventions and visitors to the Anaheim area to bring economic growth to the community.
Cara Pratt
CSI DMC, Inc. promotes Pratt to the role of chief business development officer. She has designed and executed hundreds of events in greater Boston over the past 15 years. In 2018, she began as a partner with CSI DMC and subsequently helped to grow the team and to open three new offices around New England. She will now work with all 14 of CSI DMC’s regional offices to create a cohesive business development strategy to deepen local partnerships.
John Bottino and Gina McAlpin
The Ranch Hudson Valley makes key appointments to its leadership team.
Bottino takes on the role of general manager. He will oversee all logistics of the daily structured schedule that supports guests on their journey towards improved well-being through programs such as The Ranch’s signature morning hikes, and will work to create and manage a vibrant team of program managers, hiking guides practitioners and instructors. His background extends beyond hospitality, into health, and he is also a certified yoga instructor.
McAlpin serves as director of programming. She brings over 12 years of experience as a fitness trainer, marketer and sales specialist. At The Ranch, she will lead a dynamic team of program guides, fitness trainers and wellness practitioners, as well as develop seasonal programming. She brings a master of science in Integrative Nutrition, which strengthens her understanding of the connections between nutrition, fitness and overall wellbeing, and will help her to create a meaningful, lasting guest experience.
Shane Pateman
Langham Hospitality Group appoints Pateman as managing director of The Langham Huntington, Pasadena and as regional vice president, operations—North America. He brings over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry and strong expertise in hotel management and operations and will now lead the Southern California hotel as well as provide operational leadership at properties throughout North America. Most recently, he served as SVP of sales and marketing at Langham Hospitality Group.
Misty Pacheco
Pacheco is appointed as director of sales at the Pensacola Beach Resort. She brings over 24 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Most recently, she served as director of catering and convention services at The Hilton Pensacola Beach & Holiday Inn Resort, where she has successfully coordinated events for up to 2,000 attendees. She will now work with the hotel team at Pensacola Beach Resort to secure and host various events and attract a greater volume of group and social bookings to the resort.
Cynthia Gonzalez
Gonzales is the first director of sales for Visit the Santa Ynez Valley. She will lead the development and implementation of long-term sales strategies and tactics to attract overnight group business to the Santa Ynez Valley. In addition, she will lead the promotion of a Group Sales action plan to deliver value to Santa Ynez Valley’s customers and additional group business to the organization’s tourism partners. She brings nearly two decades of hospitality and tourism knowledge to this new role, most recently working as director of sales for Visit SLO CAL.
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