Additionally, Ahmed is the founder of Redefy, a youth-run nonprofit committed to furthering equality. He speaks often on the power of his generation, and he seeks to use his voice to push the envelope forward wherever/however possible. Overwhelmingly though, he’s just another Gen Zer spending way too much time on TikTok. 

With over 20 years of industry experience in both Mexico and the United States, Avila is a versatile leader that plays a key role in securing business for local hotels that lead to a greater economic impact in the destination.

Excursionist supports families, couples and corporate groups in planning and executing unique experiential itineraries focused on meeting local experts, scientists, chefs and provides special behind-the-scenes access to national parks, museums and special sites. Prior to founding Excursionist, Norman was an executive at American Express in New York and a strategist for Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds an MBA from Stern NYU and a master’s in international relations from the University of Virginia. He lives with his family in Miami, where he is active on the board of Human Rights Watch.

He also oversaw all aspects of the Disneynature film label and was instrumental in the creative development of the first 14 Disneynature films, which is where his passion for meeting the challenges facing wildlife today really took hold. In his work with Disneynature, Baribault pioneered the connection of conservation projects to films, collaborating with leading nonprofits to plant millions of trees and protect millions of acres of land for wildlife worldwide.

Beteta serves as a member of the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, which advises the Secretary of Commerce on issues that affect the U.S. tourism industry. She has previously served as Chair of the Board, as well as Acting CEO for Brand USA, where she provided strategic direction for the $200 million global program, interfacing with national congressional leaders and the administration. During a two-year term as National Chair of the U.S. Travel Association, she guided the successful merger of the Travel Industry Association with the Travel Business Roundtable and the creation of Brand USA. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council — Visit California was the first destination marketing organization invited to join the WTTC.

She has received numerous awards for her creative work and leadership in the travel industry, including induction into the U.S. Travel Association’s Hall of Leaders.

Beteta holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master’s degree in Public Administration/Intergovernmental Affairs from the University of Southern California. She also completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Marketing Management Program.

With more than 20 years’ experience, Birchler oversees the strategic marketing initiative to drive international and domestic visitors to experience the No. 1 U.S. activity: shopping. She manages the global travel trade industry partnerships and orchestrates the shopping center portfolio’s tourism community programming.

She has served multiple industry boards including U.S. Travel Association, National Council of Attractions & Experiences, Shop America Alliance, as well as numerous convention and visitors bureaus.

Prior to joining SFO, he served as the director of airports for San Luis Obispo County as well as director of aviation and business services for the California Special District Airport. He is a former president of the California Airports Council and is currently serving on the Board of the American Association of Airport Executives and Airports Council International – North America.

With more than 25 years of travel & tourism industry experience, Burke previously served as senior vice president, Customer Loyalty for Hilton Worldwide with global management responsibility for the award-winning Honors customer loyalty program. He joined the Los Angeles Tourism team as chief operating officer in 2016.

Chambers is always looking to the future and is passionate about driving recovery for the travel industry with Black Diamond's leading data driven solutions. He likes to think himself as an honorary Californian having visited the state well over 100 times, embracing everything California has outdoors — especially skiing, golf and crushing grapes!

Before joining AdTheorent, Cheetany helped to build and lead sales efforts for Voltari, a predictive modeling ad tech company. Prior to that, his focus was helping media companies anchored in print expand and maximize their presence in the digital space. In this capacity, he led digital sales efforts for Gannet, as well as previously holding a sales position for YP during its move into digital.

Cheetany also currently serves as president and a member of the board of directors of CIMA, the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association. This is a dedicated group of digital and interactive marketing professionals providing the Chicago Interactive marketing community with opportunities to network, learn and share expertise.

Previously, Coker served as the president & CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, where she oversaw the 2017 NFL Draft and the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which had a combined economic impact of $325 million for Philadelphia. Earlier, she served as PHLCVB’s executive vice president, convention division, and managed a staff of 25 sales and services professionals responsible for selling the expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center and hotel packages to customers across the country.

Prior to joining the PHLCVB, she was the general manager for the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn’s Landing, where she oversaw all operational aspects of the 350-room hotel. A 21-year Hyatt veteran, she began her career in 1989 as a corporate management trainee at Hyatt Regency Columbus. Throughout her more than two decades with Hyatt, she rose through the ranks in a variety of positions, including assistant front office manager, front office manager, hotel assistant manager, assistant executive housekeeper and general manager.

Coker serves on several boards, including the California Travel Association, Visit California, The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and the Downtown San Diego Partnership. She is an Executive Committee Member of the U.S. Travel Association and Destinations International.

From January 2018-2020, she served as co-chair for U.S. Travel’s Meetings Mean Business Coalition and secretary-treasurer for the International Association of Exhibitions and Events Executive Committee. From 2016-2019, Coker co-chaired the Shared Spaces Initiative to combat homelessness with Philadelphia’s Mayor, and in 2016, she served as the chair of Mayor Jim Kenney’s transition team for the Democratic National Convention.

Additionally, Coker is a member of the Philadelphia Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. In 2012 and 2019, the Philadelphia Business Journal named her among their Women of Distinction honorees. She was the 2017 United Negro College Fund Mayor’s Ball Honoree for Civic Leadership and was named one of the Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business. She also received the Cradle of Liberty Good Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America Cradle of Liberty Council and was the recipient of the 2011 John Wanamaker Award (Individual Award) given by the YMCA of Philadelphia and Vicinity.

Coker is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she received a bachelor's in hospitality management and graduated magna cum laude.

Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Collins held several roles at global brand consultancy Interbrand, working in both the London and New York offices. At Interbrand, she served as a strategy lead, advising clients on brand management solutions inclusive of positioning development, brand architecture, naming and brand valuation, among other disciplines.

Since taking the job as president and CEO in 2006, D'Alessandro has driven San Francisco Travel to adopt the San Francisco ethos of community, innovation and openness as its core business values. The association has embraced a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that makes the most of a rapidly evolving technological landscape. It has forged partnerships with and between hotels, venues and neighboring destinations to maximize both the visitor experience and organizational goals. Among his achievements was the development of the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District, which created a unique and sustainable funding structure that has become a national model for tourism promotion.

The results speak for themselves. Since 2009, visitation to San Francisco has grown by nearly 30%. The Moscone Center, which completed a massive renovation and expansion in 2019, is one of the most in-demand convention centers in the nation. And the association has rebranded and refocused, charting an ambitious course for its next 100 years.

D'Alessandro is a leader in the city as well as in the industry. He has lent his knowledge and skill to a number of groups, including the executive committee of the U.S. Travel Association, Visit California and San Francisco’s Super Bowl 50 Host Committee. In 2014, he was named the Most Admired CEO by The San Francisco Business Times and in 2020 he was awarded the Destination Organization Leadership Award by Destination International.

He lives in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood.

The San Francisco Travel Association is the city’s official destination marketing organization, promoting San Francisco and the Bay Area to the world as the premier destination for conventions, meetings, events and leisure travel. In D'Alessandro's decade of leadership, the association has become one of the largest membership-based DMOs in the country, with employees stationed across the country and around the globe.

Decaire is charged with developing Southwest's entry into airline partnerships through interline and codeshare agreements. He specializes in innovative solutions addressing complex industry challenges and has led the way on several of the company's change initiatives designed to generate revenue, reduce costs and maximize aircraft productivity.

AFAR is currently the third fastest growing media company (+2.5 million monthly unique visitors) with the third most affluent audience (median household net worth $1.1 million) in all measured media, according to IPSOS. Check out afar.com and sign up for AFAR’s newsletters to see how we attract the world’s best travelers to our platforms.

Recently named as one of CALED’s 40 at 40 honorees, Dowse has been recognized many times throughout her career for best practices in economic development. She has also served in a variety of regional and state leadership roles. Under her guidance, the Siskiyou EDC spearheaded the Siskiyou Tourism Improvement District and launched the Discover Siskiyou brand.

Ferraro has extensive experience creating digital, mobile and TV solutions for brands at emerging and mature companies, driving more than $1 billion in gross revenue over the course of her 25-year career.

Prior to joining Tastemade, Ferraro served as the senior vice president of national sales at Omnia Media.

She has created content for over a decade in several languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Greek and Italian across more than 600 videos across two YouTube channels, DamonAndJo and Jo Franco, which have amassed more than 1.3 million subscribers. She is also the founder of JoClub, an online global journaling movement where she leads workshops and events around writing for self-discovery.

Local Adventurer focuses on exploring our own backyard, exploring the outdoors and photography. As two not-that-outdoorsy people, Julee and Fu push themselves to experience new things outside their comfort zones to encourage and show others that anyone can do it.

Gambelli is an innovative thought leader with 18 years of industry experience. As a seasoned cross-channel investment lead, he brings creativity and insight to negotiations in order to drive favorable business outcomes. He has deep and wide-ranging senior-level industry relationships across network, digital and data partners.

Prior to joining Havas Media, he worked with Omnicom and GroupM, which provided him with a well-rounded perspective. He has expertise in navigating cross-channel teams to drive best-in-class collaboration and value. In addition to Visit California, he has represented Universal Pictures/Focus Features, Paramount Pictures, PlayStation, Hilton Hotels, Nature’s Bounty, Proximo Spirits, TracFone Wireless, Keurig Dr Pepper and many more. He also specializes in larger sports partnerships as well as media corporate trade (barter).

Prior to Sojern, Goulden held client and product development roles working for recognized technology and media companies including OneMarket, Conversant, Zuberance, Claria and Intuit. Recently, he served as chief product officer for OneMarket, a tech spinout of Westfield Malls, where he led the development of a unique customer activation platform for retail. He began his career in product development at Intuit.

While Griffith spends most of her time in creative development, social media strategy and multicultural marketing, you can also find her traveling the world, listening to jazz music, cooking or creating content for TikTok. You can also catch her at many live concerts, sporting events or really any excuse to come together that the world has to offer.

She spent six years living and working in California, handling business development for a boutique tour operator in Los Angeles while earning her degree in business marketing at CSUN University. She currently coordinates and oversees all the activities, relations and special projects for both Marketing and PR areas for AVIAREPS Italy. She speaks Italian, English, Hebrew and Spanish.

Higgins is a graduate of Lincoln Technical Institute in Philadelphia. With more than 25 years of luxury operations experience in hospitality, his career has spanned internationally — including his own Inn and managing the famed Skywalker Ranch.

CrowdRiff is a visual marketing platform used by more than 800 destinations to discover, organize, acquire rights and publish the most engaging visual content across every channel, at scale.

Hrach is an ad agency veteran, and for more than a decade she’s been developing super-smart content strategies for companies ranging from up-and-coming startups to Fortune 500s. Her experience includes pretty much any industry you can think of, including some of the world’s biggest brands, like Nike and Farmers Insurance.

Today, she’s with Convince & Convert, a digital marketing strategy consultancy headed up by New York Times best-selling author and world-renowned speaker Jay Baer.

Kachroo-Levine has been travelin since she was young, taking the TGV through France and riding on the back of a motorized scooter in New Delhi as a toddler. More recently, she's covered Greece, France and Singapore's reopening on the ground, copiloted a private jet, roasted agave to make mezcal in Oaxaca, Mexico, and ventured to Sweden's Arctic Circle in the middle of winter. She loves being the first in at new hotels and improving the Bloody Mary mix in airport lounges (the trick is to find celery salt, FYI.)

As CEO, Karamat leads the vision, mission and promise for PCMA’s global family of brands. He serves the greater business events industry as a prominent business architect, enabling the community to become a catalyst for economic and social progress, organizational success and personal and professional development.

In his previous role as chief operating officer, Karamat led the development and implementation of PCMA’s new vision: driving global economic and social transformation through business events.

In 2008, Kemp founded Oakstreet Media, a company formed to invest in and acquire lower-middle market business-to-business media and information companies. From 2004 to 2008, he was a Managing Director at Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a leading private equity firm investing in the media and communications industry. Prior to VSS, he was the chairman and CEO of Penton Media Inc., an NYSE listed public company and one of the largest business-to-business information companies in the U.S. Earlier, he was president and COO of Miller Freeman Inc. a market-leading business to-business information, events and media company headquartered in San Francisco.

Kemp has extensive experience in sourcing, negotiating, closing, and integrating more than 100 transactions in his career as well as successful exits. He has experience as a public company CEO including successful execution of equity, high-yield bonds and senior secured debt offerings.

He is currently a board member of The Society of Show Operators, the leading global association for event and exhibition for-profit producers. He was recently a board member of Destinations International, the global association for destinations and CVBs, as well as Connectiv, the association for B2B marketing services and information providers. Kemp has previously served on the boards of several business media companies and industry associations, including American Business Media, SIIA, and BPA International. In June 2010, he was honored as the CEO Top Innovator in business publishing by BtoB Magazine. He was honored by American Business Media as the 2014 McAllister Top Management Fellow and was named a C-Level Visionary by the 2015 Folio: 100 Honorees.

Kemp received his bachelor's with honors from Amherst College. He lives with his family in Mill Valley, Calif.

 

Kirk has a master's degree in social justice and community organizing from Prescott College and a bachelor's in political science and women's studies from PLNU.

Prior to her work in travel, Mamian was a successful entrepreneur, marketing strategist for a publicly traded company, and board member for several non-profit organizations.

Her main passion is FAMILY and she has created a tight-knit super fun crew who enjoy traveling the world and finding fun activities to do together. Her family uses social media and her blog to inspire other families to get out and have fun together too. She’s like to point out that you only get 18 summers!

In her early media years, Marinho held positions at AOL, MapQuest and Comcast. She holds a bachelor’s in communications with a minor in business from St. John’s University.

Mason currently serves on Destinations International Foundation and Tourism Diversity Matters. She is a Chicago Business Journal Women of Influence Honoree 2019, Chicago Defender Women of Excellence Honoree 2019 and the CEO Update Professional Society CEO of the Year 2020. She is a certified association executive, fellow of the American Society for Association Executives and a certified quality improvement associate.

Maza later joined Virtuoso as executive vice president of supplier relations and partnerships. For the last 18 years, he has worked at Signature Travel Network primarily focused on supplier relations and business development. Recently, Ignacio took on a new role spearheading the development of Signature’s luxury business. In his current capacity, he works closely with the network’s management and travel industry partners to build the network’s luxury sales.

Maza is originally from Cuba. An avid traveler, he has visited over one hundred countries on seven continents. He currently lives in New York City.

Metcalfe joined Tourism Ireland in 2002 and previously held the position of vice president marketing, USA. Prior to moving to New York, she was responsible for Tourism Ireland’s operations in Canada based in Toronto.

She has extensive destination marketing experience and a record of achievement in building and leading high-performance teams. Her career has spanned strategy development, brand management, integrated consumer marketing, communications and stakeholder management. She has worked in the U.K., Europe and North America.

Metcalfe has served as chair of the European Travel Commission, USA Chapter since 2017. European Travel Commission is the non-profit organization responsible for the promotion of Destination Europe as the worldwide number one tourist destination in third markets. Its 34-member National Tourism Organizations work together to strengthen the sustainable development of Europe as a tourist destination in sharing best practices, market intelligence and promotion. In 2019, U.S. travelers made a record 36.4 million trips to Europe.

Previously, Davis worked in B2B marketing and travel journalism, with bylines in publications including Santa Barbara Seasons, Edible Magazine and The Bold Italic. She even wrote a piece covering the opening of the first AutoCamp property in 2013.

Davis resides in San Francisco, where she’s always searching for the next best cup of coffee or dozen oysters.

As SMARInsights’ executive vice president, Miller serves as the project lead for tourism projects for destinations across the country. She works with state and local organizations that promote tourism development in the areas of target marketing, advertising effectiveness and economic impact. She is also active in the Travel & Tourism Research Association and was awarded the Distinguished Research Award from TTRA.

Her knowledge of the DMO side of the business provides the experience to analyze and present research findings in a way that is meaningful and helps drive policy and implementation.

After spending 20 years in the tourism industry, Nouchy resumed my studies at École Centrale Paris. He goals were diverse, but ultimately, she wanted to improve her knowledge of the latest marketing and online marketing concepts. In 2004, she created MN Organization. The company quickly attracted a large clientele of new and returning clients who chose MN because of its diverse team that does what it takes to live up to every clients' brand and always gets the job done. 

Each day, her team has grown more committed as their reputation has increased. They are leaders in the tourism industry at improving a clients' reputations, in the media sphere, within the industry and with the general public.

Orfield serves as the Chair of Visit California’s International Marketing Committee, an avid golfer and passionate about travel’s benefits to society. From 2001 to 2005, Orfield was a Nike Golf Player Staff member selected as 1 of only 50 people in the US to assist the ‘Just Do It’ brand with grassroots marketing and promotions as it entered the golf market. He resides with his wife in La Quinta and is the father of four children.

He previously worked for more than 14 years at Verizon, Yahoo!, AOL and the Goodway Group, enabling Disney, Netflix, Airbnb and Tourism Boards to grow through data-driven initiatives across the U.S. and Asia.

Orkin is an avid traveler, lived in Singapore and is excited about the future of travel. He currently lives in Marina del Ray, California, with his 12-year-old rescue named Pepper.

Otto has previously held leadership positions with Hilton Hotels and Marriott. He speaks four languages and enjoys cycling.

As president and CEO of GMS, Pace is directly responsible for the development of each client’s marketing, sales and public relations initiatives in Mexico, Central and South America, the U.S. and Canada,

His vision, dynamism and focus on results are key pillars for developing GMS Group, a business and added-value generator for its clients and tourism environment, with a full-service portfolio and operational infrastructure.

Pace’s in-depth knowledge of the Mexican and Latin American market is widely recognized in the industry. He was president of the Visit USA Committee in Mexico and actively participates in several travel industry associations worldwide.

In 2007, Gate 7 became the representative for Visit California. Since that time, Palmer has overseen the in-market strategy for the state and extensively grown the distribution, diversity, awareness and demand for Australia’s California tourism offerings. This team has also spearheaded recovery programs for the Australian market.

Phongmany is a strategic thinker with a global network of senior executives, know for launching and operationalizing profitable digital businesses across multiple global markets and market segments. She has proven track record of negotiating large, complex, multi-platform, multi-market, multi-million dollar deals. She is an accomplished public speaker and industry commentator with appearances at leading trade conferences and opinion pieces in leading trade publications globally.

Travellyze is ITG's unique traveler intelligence platform delivering detailed traveler profiles and actionable insights. Pomeroy is also CEO of destination management and marketing consultancy THR Tourism Industry Advisors and a member of World Innovation and Change Management Institute.

Prior to moving to California, he served as Universal Orlando’s vice president of destination sales, where he led their international offices in the U.K., Brazil and Mexico. He has served as vice chair of Visit Florida’s International Committee and currently serves on the Visit California International Committee. 

Reeves enjoys the challenge of working on and providing effective solutions to exceed client expectations, which is why two of his major passions are connecting industry leaders to one another and driving value to clients.

Prior to joining Connections, he worked with Reed Exhibitions, where he discovered his love for travel and luxury travel events. He has also worked on many of the industry's leading exhibitions including World Travel Market London, WTM Africa, WTM Latin America and Arabian Travel Market.

Reeves is also the founder of the Thump Clothing brand and UnEarth Travel app.

Prior to Near and UberMedia, Saunders founded Attract China, a tourism marketing company focused on Chinese travelers coming to America, and ran it as CEO over a four-year period, servicing 250 clients, speaking at over 30 conferences worldwide and winning multiple industry-leading awards including HSMAI’s Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds. An avid traveler and club sandwich enthusiast, Saunders documents his adventures on his blog, ClubSandwichReviews.com.

After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Shaini landed an internship in the ad industry and the rest is history. Her work at several Sacramento agencies has exposed her to a staggering number of local, statewide and national clients across variety of categories. In 2016 she joined The Shipyard media team to oversee all things media, quickly becoming a travel specialist. Current client work includes Visit California, Visit Napa Valley, Yountville, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Visit SLO CAL, Tahiti Tourism, Hotel Del Coronado and Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort.

Smith joined Hertz in 2002 in Dublin, Ireland where she held multiple leadership roles at the company’s international customer contact center. In 2013, she relocated to the U.S. to lead Hertz’s North America Customer Care team and contact center. In 2019, she was promoted to Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, overseeing the company’s global Customer Care and Customer Experience organization before being named to her current role in June 2020.

Stušek has been active in tourism since high school. For several years she was also an active member of National PR organization, leading the central communication section for PR experts from different fields and organizing debates with different communication specialists. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and a master’s degree in business and marketing from the School of Economics & Business, University of Ljubljana. Stušek is an avid recreational athlete and, of course, a passionate traveler.

Her career highlights have included: launching Intuit TurboTax’s first-ever TikTok Hashtag Challenge, spearheading a 24-hour livestream that achieved a Guinness World Record and producing livestream Q&As and viral videos with WWE Superstars. As a speaker, Thomas shares social media tips and trends with a dash of pop culture and a side of straight talk, inspiring audiences to develop innovative campaigns that build the bottom line.

Throughout his career, Van Deventer has established a proven track record for driving business growth, creating brand value and organizational development. Prior to joining MPI, he served as divisional vice president of the Health & Wellness Division at Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in the U.S. Before Walgreens, he was the senior vice president of sales and field services at Mitchell International Inc., a leading provider of information, software and business solutions for the automotive insurance and collision repair markets. He joined Mitchell after leaving American Express, where over a 22-year career he held a number of domestic and international positions in publishing, business travel, meetings and events, and corporate payments, including his last position as the vice president and general manager of the Multi-National Client Group.

Van Deventer  serves on the board of directors for the U.S. Travel Association, the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), Tourism Diversity Matters (TDM) and the California State University Hospitality and Tourism Alliance Council. He has served on the board of the Events Industry Council as chair and the Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMB) as vice-chair. 

He holds a bachelor's in history from Villanova University and an MBA with a finance concentration from Columbia University. He and his wife Dennie have been happily married for more than 30 years and they are the proud parents of five young adults. He is an avid fan of Villanova basketball.

His 18-year Disney career has included leadership roles in business planning, marketing strategy, and marketing and sales. Before taking on his current role, he served as vice president of marketing and sales strategy for Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney and Aulani Resort in Hawaii. He has also served as vice president of marketing for Disneyland Paris and as vice president of marketing for Disneyland Resort in California.

Prior to joining Disney, van Langeveld worked in consumer-packaged goods, focusing on business growth and marketing and sales strategies for a Fortune 100 company.

He holds a bachelor’s from UCLA and a Master of Business Administration from LMU. He lives and works in Southern California and travels the world in his job with Disney.

She has a wealth of knowledge in developing comprehensive strategies for tourism development of destinations and maintaining relationships with significant industry stakeholders. Her past work experience includes senior positions with the Oberoi Group of Hotels and Marriott International. Her current professional affiliations include IAC chair for IPW since 2001 and industry co-chair for U.S. India Travel & Tourism.

In 2013 PhoCusWright named Vowinkel to be part of an elite group of travel leaders under the age of 35. She is a member of the Google Washington site leadership team, with oversight over the Seattle and Kirkland offices. She is also co-founder of the women’s leadership group for Washington and involved in local programs promoting STEM initiatives for young women. She sits on the board of both Sea.Citi and Kindering. She has over 20 years of experience in the technology and online media space, including Seattle startup Go2Net/Infospace and Time Warner in New York City.

Vowinkel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, and she currently resides in Seattle with her husband and three daughters. She loves to travel, and it’s a toss-up between sun and snow.

He has deep knowledge and strong relationships in the German travel industry from his professional experience, which spans more than 30 years in the destination representation business.

He has been the active managing director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland since the organization entered the market in 1994.

A native of California, White came to Visit Greater Palm Springs in 2010 following four years as the executive director of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau and eight years at the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau. He began his hospitality career in Monterey, California, in the hotel industry, including nine years with Renaissance Hotels.

White is a past chairman of the California Travel Association and currently serves on the Executive Committee of Destinations International and on the board of trustees for the California Travel Political Action Committee. He also serves on the Chairman’s Circle of the U.S. Travel Association. Locally, he is on the board of directors for the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

When not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Rachel, and being outdoors golfing, hiking or exploring new destinations. His favorite quote: “In the midst of chaos lies creativity.”

During high school he worked alongside his father at the Casa de Fruta Restaurant. After undergraduate studies at U.C. Berkeley, Zanger entered Santa Clara University to pursue a Masters in Business Administration. During his tenure at SCU, he worked at Levi Strauss Company in San Francisco. Upon graduation, he was hired as a food service product manager for Oscar Mayer Foods in Wisconsin. After three typical Wisconsin winters, he returned home to California and Casa de Fruta.

Casa de Fruta is a family run business that has grown into a diverse agricultural and tourism retail business in Hollister, California which includes the original fruit stand, 24-hour restaurant, RV Park, 24-hour Chevron station, Zanger Vineyards Wine Tasting, scale-model railroad, carousel. The grounds are also home to the Northern California Renaissance Faire. Over the last 20 years, he has been responsible for marketing & government relations at Casa de Fruta.

In his free time, he enjoys biking and traveling. He resides in Hollister, with wife Anni, son Lukas and daughter Caitlin.