• Click here to read the Enewsletter.

SIA Welcomes 2 new members

• Edward Staros, The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples
• Gary Inman, Glave & Holmes Associates

SIA Welcomes the following new members!

• Brooks Bradbury: General Manager, Primland
• Ted Horan: VP Operations, The Resort at Glade Springs
• Shannon Ginn: Managing Member, Cumming’s Cove Golf & Country Club
• Ray Waters: Regional Director, Turnberry Associations / Hilton Nashville
• Matt Harris: Callaway Gardens
• Tony Lapi: President, Tween Waters Inn

Summer 2007 e-Newsletter

Click here to view the summer newsletter which was emailed to you on in July. If you did not receive it via email, contact headquarters to update your email address.

SIA Welcomes New Members

SIA Welcomes Michael Gordon!
Please join us in welcoming Michael Gordon, the new general manager at The Greenbrier.

Spring 2007 E-Newsletter Now Available
Click here to view the spring newsletter which was emailed to you on 3-12-07. If you did not receive it via email, contact headquarters to update your email address.

SIA Welcomes 2 New Members!
Please join us in welcoming Ian Sauer and Doyle Parrish with Summit Hospitality in Raleigh , NC . Both gentlemen were nominated by SIA member Wayne Shusko, who has recently joined Summit Hospitality.

St. Pete Beach-based Sirata Beach Resort & Conference Center will be named Large Florida Family Business of the Year


Family business honorees are Tampa Bay area institutions

Jan 2007

David Jones To Lead High Hampton Inn & Country Club into 2007 as New General Manager
Read announcement...

Southern Innkeepers welcomes two new members!

• Phillip Cunningham, Williamsburg Inn & Williamsburg Lodge, General Manager
• John Sharpe, Bohan Advertising/Marketing, Partner/CMO
• Deborah Stone, Pineapple Public Relations, President

Dec 2006
SIA Member Ted Kleisner Retires From Greenbrier, Heads to Hershey as New CEO
(Hershey, Pa.)
The Board of Directors of Hershey Entertainment & Resorts has unanimously appointed Ted J. Kleisner, who for 20 years helped to make The Greenbrier “America’s Resort,” to be the company’s new President and CEO, succeeding the retiring Scott Newkam.

“Ted Kleisner is the ideal person to take Hershey Entertainment & Resorts to the next level of greatness, and, in so doing, to further support and fuel the legacy of Milton S. Hershey,” said HE&R Board Member LeRoy Zimmerman. Zimmerman was elected by his Board colleagues to be the new Chairman of the HE&R Board. Kleisner and Zimmerman both will begin their new duties January 1.

“Hershey Entertainment & Resorts advanced considerably under Scott Newkam’s leadership. I am absolutely certain that Ted Kleisner will propel us further still,” said Zimmerman. “It is a coup to land someone of his national gravitas.”

Kleisner, 62, recently retired as President and CEO of the Greenbrier Resort and Club Management Company, which owns and manages The Greenbrier, the world-famous, 6,500-acre resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.

The Greenbrier has been awarded AAA Five-Diamond status since inception of the award and is one of only three properties to have earned this distinction for 30 consecutive years. The Greenbrier Resort and Club Management Company also manages resorts, clubs and real estate developments in Georgia, Florida, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Bermuda.

A national leader in destination management, Kleisner, a third-generation hotelier, also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Culinary Institute of America and on the Board of Directors of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. He is chair of the Association’s Resort Committee. He was awarded the “Independent Hotelier of the World” honor in 1993 and, in 1994, was named “Resort Executive of the Year.”

The Board found its first choice to succeed Newkam within the Hershey Entertainment & Resorts family. Kleisner has served on the Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Board of Directors since 1996. He is intimately familiar with the company and its long-term strategic planning.

“Ted is a superb choice to lead this great company,” said Newkam, whose retirement from Hershey Entertainment & Resorts will take effect January 1. Newkam voted in favor of Kleisner’s appointment. “He is a respected leader in our industry, a proven executive and an honorable person. There could be no better choice.”

Long active in West Virginia civic organizations, Kleisner and his wife Karen are relocating to Hershey. “Hershey is one of the most remarkable communities in the world. We want to become part of it in every way,” Kleisner said.

Zimmerman noted that Kleisner also is familiar with the notion of serving a higher purpose while running a successful entertainment business, an ideal that is at the core of the HE&R mission. “As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hershey Trust, the profitable management of HE&R provides revenue to support the Milton Hershey School, Milton Hershey’s school for needy children,” Zimmerman said.

“As head of the Greenbrier, Ted wasn’t just responsible for running a successful business. He also was quietly performing a critical national service, overseeing a top-secret federal government project called “Project Greek Island” – a secret bunker 70 feet under the Greenbrier’s West Virginia Wing. Project Greek Island was the secret relocation site for the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court in the event of nuclear attack.

“Its mission was nothing less than to guarantee the survival of the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government, and thus maintain the country as a constitutional republic, even in a catastrophic war,” said Zimmerman. Project Greek Island was disclosed and declassified in 1995.

Zimmerman, the new Board chair, is Senior Counsel and former Chairman of the Board of Eckert Seamans. Pennsylvania’s first elected Attorney General, a post he held for eight years, Zimmerman is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hershey Trust Company and the Board of Managers of the Milton Hershey School.

With Zimmerman’s election as chairman of the Board of HE&R, the Board is embracing an emerging best practice in corporate governance: dividing the duties of chief executive and board leader. “Increasingly, corporations are dividing the responsibility of Chairman of the Board and CEO,” explained Kleisner. “One of the Board’s primary functions is to hold the CEO accountable, and a separate Board Chairman is well positioned to lead the exercise of that important duty.”

Hershey Entertainment & Resorts is a privately held company that was founded in 1927, when Milton S. Hershey separated his chocolate manufacturing operations from his other businesses. All of these non-chocolate producing divisions were reorganized under the name Hershey Estates, which is known today as Hershey Entertainment & Resorts. Hershey Entertainment & Resorts and its subsidiaries own and/or operate the Hershey park entertainment complex, Hershey park Arena & Stadium, Zoo America North American Wildlife Park, Hershey Bears AHL Hockey Club, Giant Center, Dutch Wonderland entertainment complex, The Hotel Hershey, Hershey Lodge, Hershey Highmeadow Campground, Hershey Country Club, Hershey Nursery, and Hershey Laundry and Textiles.

October 2006 E-News
Click here to read the e-newsletter emailed to you on 10-2-06

Join us in welcoming our newest members!

• Prem Devadas, President of Salamander Hospitality in Middleburg, VA
• Ken Jesina, GM of the Fairfield Myrtle Beach at Ocean Boulevard in SC
• Kevin Carter, GM of the Airlie Center in Warrenton, VA
• Matthew Harris, Manager at The Homestead in Hot Springs, VA
• Lani Riches, owner of Monmouth Plantation in Natchez, MS
• Bill Bond, President of FHM Insurances (allied member)

David Feder Named GM of the Fontainebleau Resort
SIA member David Feder, former president of PGA National Resort & Club, takes a new position in Miami Beach. Read the full article by clicking here.

University of Michigan Report: Consumers Rate Hotels & Airlines
On May 16, 2006 the University of Michigan's annual report on customer satisfaction with key sectors in the travel industry was released. It is the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a leading economic indicator, which reflects the overall level of satisfaction among American consumers with the goods and services they purchase. The ACSI is the only national, cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction. It is produced using a sophisticated methodology that reflects what most impacts people's future buying behaviors. Most importantly, the ACSI is forward looking and not merely a reflection of yesterday's performance.
Read the report (.doc). View the scores (.xls)


Please contact Emily Bartlett with any business or social news announcements.