Cleo Fight to turn out to be head of Louisville Tourism in summer 2021
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After roughly seven years as president and CEO of Louisville Tourism, the former Louisville Conference and Site visitors Bureau, Karen Williams is retiring this summer months, the agency declared Friday.
Cleo Fight, Louisville Tourism’s chief running officer, will get in excess of as head of the company on July 1 — getting to be the to start with Black human being to maintain that placement.
Battle initial joined Louisville’s tourism company as govt vice president in 2013 right after a 12-yr operate as vice president of gross sales and products and services for the Richmond Convention & People Bureau in Virginia. Fight became Louisville Tourism’s COO in 2019.
A veteran of the hospitality industry of extra than 30 a long time, Struggle started his occupation functioning for Embassy Suites, Holiday break Inn and Sheraton Accommodations. He is a Denver native who graduated from Metropolitan Point out School with a bachelor’s in hotel and restaurant administration. He gained his master’s of business administration in 1997 from Averett Higher education in Virginia.
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Battle has been leading attempts to roll out new diversity initiatives in Louisville’s hospitality market, which include heading a Black Tourism Advisory Council in June, intended to help Louisville Tourism curate and appropriately convey to stories of Black Louisville.
Battle informed The Courier Journal in December he has 4 targets to assistance Louisville pivot and prosper following the coronavirus pandemic: Building improved associations with the nearby Black neighborhood internet marketing Kentucky’s Black heritage encounter to enhance leisure visitation bettering the hospitality sector and diversifying the make-up of his individual business.
“We should want our expert environment, our academic environment, to be environments where by folks have equivalent option and equivalent access,” Battle claimed in an interview at the time. “And I think we are nonetheless challenged by that.”
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Struggle will consider more than the submit from Williams, who, in advance of turning out to be president and CEO of the company in 2014, worked for 23 years at the Louisville Conference and Visitors Bureau, retiring as government vice president in 2012.
She has been in the hospitality field for far more than 40 decades and commenced as a income manager at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlanta. Although operating for Louisville’s tourism agency, Williams has served on a number of boards, including Leadership Louisville, Conference Professionals Worldwide.
Williams also served as chairwoman of the Location and Journey Basis, a charitable corporation dedicated to highlighting the effect of travel about the earth and serving place internet marketing pros. In 2012, she acquired the Dan Mangeot award, which acknowledges people today who have created a major impression on Louisville tourism initiatives.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer explained in a assertion Friday that it It would be “unattainable to overstate Karen Williams’ effects on the file tourism development that Louisville has observed in the latest years, with a pre-pandemic peak of 19 million guests in 2019.”
“Further than staying one particular of our community’s most optimistic, dynamic cheerleaders, Karen brought amazing capabilities, working experience and sense of collaboration to the position,” Fischer explained. “She was instrumental in working with the town, condition and tourism stakeholders to finance and help the stunning renovation of the (Kentucky Global Conference Middle), which positions us properly in a aggressive marketplace as folks begin traveling again, put up pandemic.”
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Louisville Tourism board chairman Donald Lassere, who also serves as president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center, applauded Williams in a assertion Friday and expressed assurance in Fight to guide the agency transferring ahead.
“Less than Karen’s leadership, the Louisville landscape advanced with bigger possibilities to incent very sought-right after conventions and tourism and the town was going through document growth in visitation prior to the pandemic,” Lassere mentioned. “Doing work facet by facet with Karen for 8 decades, we know Cleo has the proper combination of practical experience, leadership and vision to help our community maximize our options as locations like ours shift into a restoration and rebound period.”
Contact Ben Tobin at [email protected] and 502-377-5675 or comply with on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.
