Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) Expands National Sales Team (United States)
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Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) Expands National Sales Team (United States)
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Category: North America & West Indies / Carribean islands - United States - Careers
- Appointments
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2011-02-15
. . . Highly Regarded Meetings Industry Sales Executives Kevin Hinton, Bill Grusich, Kathy Kozminske and André Valk Move To ALHI’s Chicago National Sales Office
Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) has added four very highly-regarded meetings industry sales executives to its National Sales team. Bill Grusich, CMP, is now Senior Vice President of ALHI; Kevin M. Hinton is now Executive Vice President; Kathy Kozminske is now Vice President of Sales; and André Valk, CMP, is now Director of Sales. The four were previously executives with hinton+grusich, which was acquired by ALHI in January 2011. The announcement was made jointly by David Gabri, president and CEO of ALHI, and Stacy Lucherini, Regional Vice President for ALHI Midwest and Canada. The four are now based in ALHI’s National Sales Office in Chicago, which is one of ALHI’s 16 National Sales Offices across North America.
ALHI (www.alhi.com) is a prestigious dues-based membership National Sales organization that exclusively represents more than 130 Four- and Five-Diamond quality hotels and resorts worldwide to meeting professionals, incentive/recognition specialists, association executives, product launch specialists, and business executives wishing to conduct programs at one or more of the member properties. There is no cost to planners’ or executives’ organizations to utilize the National Sales services of ALHI, as its members’ dues fund the organization to serve planners.
“We’re very blessed to add these incredibly talented and well-respected sales executives to our ALHI team,” said Gabri. “The timing couldn’t be better as we feel business is eagerly back in the business of business, including using meetings and conventions to effectively advance goals and objectives. With the addition of Bill, Kevin, Kathy and André to our Midwest office in Chicago, we are able to provide even more comprehensive National Sales services for our 130+ members, and our expanding client base, as the general business demand continues to grow from planners across the U.S. and Canada.”
Gabri added, “We’ve been experiencing an increased demand from corporate and association meeting professionals, incentive/recognition specialists, and business executives across North America. The addition of these four exceptional National Sales professionals augments ALHI’s position as the most professional, formidable, and effective National Sales organization in North America that specifically serves the meetings marketplace.”
Prior to joining ALHI as Senior Vice President, Bill Grusich, CMP, served as president and co-founder of hinton+grusich. A highly-respected member of the meetings and hospitality industries, Grusich has been a very active member of industry organizations, and the recipient of many of the industry’s highest honors. Honors bestowed upon him include the ASAE Fellow by the American Society of Association Executives; the Chicago Chapter of Meeting Professionals International’s “MPI Individual Hall of Fame Award”; “Associate Member of the Year Award” from the Chicago Society of Association Executives (Association Forum of Chicagoland); “Salesman of the Year” from the American Medical Association; “Supplier of the Year” by Chicago Area Chapter of Meeting Professionals International; “Associate Member of the Year Award” from the Institute of Association Management Companies (IAMC); and the prestigious “Richard A. Daignault Award” from the Greater Midwest Chapter of PCMA. A very active member of MPI and ASAE, he served two terms on the MPI International Board of Directors, and was Chairman of ASAE’s Industry Partners Alliance.
Previous to joining ALHI as Executive Vice President, Kevin M. Hinton served as CEO of hinton+grusich, where he was responsible for overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations and strategic growth. Also a highly regarded member of the industry, Hinton is a member of Meeting Professionals International’s MPI International Board of Directors, and served as MPI Chicago Area Chapter’s president, and on its board of directors. Among the honors he has received were the “President’s Award” and the “Rising Star Award” from the Chicago Area Chapter of MPI.
Kathy Kozminske is now Vice President of Sales for ALHI’s Midwest Region, where she works with meeting professionals, association executives, incentive/recognition specialists, and business executives in the Midwest to coordinate programs at ALHI’s distinctive and diverse member hotels and resorts. She joins ALHI from hinton+grusich, where she served as Vice President of Sales. She has been involved in every major industry organization, which includes serving as chair and/or on committees for ASAE, PCMA, MPI, the Association Forum of Chicagoland, Meeting Industry Ladies Organization (MILO), and Financial & Insurance Conference Planners (FICP). Awards presented to her include the “Supplier of the Year” from the Chicago Area Chapter of MPI; “Associate Member of the Year Award” from the Chicago Society of Association Executives (Association Forum of Chicagoland); “Supplier of the Year” from the American Medical Association; the “Richard A. Daignault Award” from the Midwest Chapter of PCMA; and the “Kathy Osterman Industry Award” from MPI. Â
André Valk, CMP, is now Director of Sales for ALHI’s Midwest Region, after serving for 14 years as Vice President of Sales at hinton+grusich. A 26-year hospitality industry veteran, Volk’s hospitality industry career began in Germany, where he worked at an 18th century castle. His extensive experience also includes serving as Senior Front Office Executive at the Mayfair Hotel InterContinental in London, and as Associate Director of Sales for the Grand Kempinski Dallas (now Hotel InterContinental Dallas). He is the first German to ever receive the CMP designation, which he earned in 1995. He is an active member of PCMA and MPI, and currently serves on the MPI Chicago Area Chapter’s leadership, and on PCMA’s Awards Selection Committee. Along with many other industry award nominations, Valk is a recipient of the “Supplier of the Year Award” from the Chicago Area Chapter of MPI. At ALHI he is responsible for continuing to provide key Midwest meeting professionals, association executives, and travel industry specialists with ALHI National Sales service for its distinctive portfolio of more than 130 Four- and Five-Diamond quality hotels and resorts worldwide.
“We’re very proud to join ALHI,” said Kevin Hinton. “Rather than compete for business, we are now able to combine efforts and work together to better serve the business community and the hotel and resort members of ALHI. Planners and our hotel members now have an even stronger National Sales team to meet and exceed their needs, and with consolidated NSO contacts, they will save valuable time and resources. We are all very excited, and glad to be settled in the expanded ALHI sales offices in Chicago. When my father, Dave Hinton, founded our company with Bill in 1986, they built their firm with many of the same values of attributes of ALHI. My Dad would be very happy with how the company he so deeply cared for has become one with ALHI.”
With the addition of the four, ALHI’s national sales professionals staff expands to nearly 50 in North America, with 14 located in the Midwest.
100,000 Reasons To Call ALHI
With a worldwide portfolio of over 100,000 rooms and suites and more than 10 million square feet of meeting space, ALHI provides planners and their organizations experienced National Sales services with diverse options among its outstanding worldwide member hotels and resorts which specialize in meetings and incentive programs requiring from 10 to more than 6,500 rooms, with easy and professional one-call local access.
Member hotels include extraordinary Four- and Five-Diamond quality meeting and incentive resorts, incomparable city hotels, exclusive smaller hotels, golf resorts, historic and landmark properties, island destinations, resorts with spas, properties in international destinations, and hotels and resorts with world-class gaming and entertainment.
For a complete list of ALHI’s entire worldwide portfolio, visit www.alhi.com, and preview details of ALHI’s impressive portfolio, including easily useful information on several defined specialty segments within the ALHI portfolio to serve distinctive meeting, convention and incentive travel needs. Included among these is the “ALHI Level 5 Collection,” for ALHI’s 18 hotels that have earned the highest and most distinctive recognitions including the prestigious AAA Five-Diamond rating, and/or the esteemed Forbes (Mobil) Five-Star rating.
Other specialty segments include:Â the “ALHI Big Box 5-50 Solutions Collection,” featuring ALHI’s 27 member hotels and resorts that offer more than 500 rooms, feature over 50,000 square feet of meeting space each, and have at least one 20,000-square-foot ballroom or more; the “ALHI Historic Collection,” consisting of 36 legendary hotels and resorts with more than 50 years of heritage; the “Mountain Collection,” for planners desiring to conduct programs with inspiring mountain views; and the “ALHI U-200 Gems Collection,” consisting of ALHI members with 200 rooms or under, which specialize in serving meeting and incentive programs.
In addition, ALHI also features the “ALHI Golf Collection,” consisting of ALHI’s 43 Four- and Five-Diamond golf resorts that cater to the meetings and incentive marketplaces; and the “ALHI Beach & Island Collection,” featuring 33 Four- and Five-Diamond beach and/or island resorts and hotels with distinction which are designed to serve meetings and programs worldwide.
To make it easy for planners to access options within any of the specialty segments, there is an “ALHI Specialty Segments” quick reference button on the www.alhi.com Home Page. The button provides easy access for planners to preview the options available in each specialty segment, to be augmented by their ALHI national sales executive, also easily identifiable at www.alhi.com . On the site, planners can quickly see details of the properties’ meeting, accommodation, recreational and dining offerings, as well as destination information and “Luxury on Sale” value opportunities. A photo gallery, meeting floor plans and specs, and a location map for each property are also easily available.
ALHI has 16 professionally-staffed National Sales Offices to serve, with locations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Louisville, New York City, Orange County (CA), Orlando, Philadelphia, Richmond, Savannah, San Diego, Toronto and Washington, DC. Go to www.alhi.com to identify the “ALHI Contacts” sales professionals in your state/area.
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