The Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau in Louisville, Ky., has named Karen Williams its new president and CEO, it announced yesterday.
Williams — who succeeds longtime CEO Jim Wood, who unexpectedly resigned his post earlier this year— has been serving as interim CEO of the CVB since January. Most recently a consultant with her own event design company, Inspired, she has 32 years of experience in the hospitality industry, including 23 years at the Louisville CVB, from which she retired in 2012 to start Inspired.
“The hospitality industry is an extremely competitive market for lucrative conventions and meetings business as well as leisure travel,” CVB Board Chair Michael Howerton said in a statement. “As the Louisville landscape evolves with greater opportunities to incent highly sought-after conventions and tourism, we believe we have found in Karen the right combination of experience, leadership and vision to help our community maximize those opportunities.”
For a recap of last week's top stories, check out MeetingNews Minute:
> Watch More Videos