Visit Oakland Board of Directors and Executive Committee Appointed for 2019-2020
Visit Oakland, the city’s official destination marketing organization, announces the appointment of the new board of directors and executive committee for the coming fiscal year. Visit Oakland’s board of directors consists of 20 members with eight being executive committee members. Board members are representative of the city’s hospitality industry, the business community and the public sector.
The Visit Oakland board of directors provides thoughtful leadership in line with Visit Oakland’s mission, which is to increase tourism’s economic impact to Oakland through marketing and brand management. This brand management, sales and public relations outreach ultimately increases leisure travel, business travel, groups, meetings, conventions, sporting events and new economic development for the city, which in turn increases the tourism taxes that directly benefit the City of Oakland.
“Visit Oakland’s role of increasing the awareness of Oakland as a top travel destination, conferences and corporate meetings is augmented with the strength and diversity of its board of directors,” said Mark Everton, CEO of Visit Oakland. “The members of the board are passionate about The Town and the positive economic impact that tourism brings to all of Oakland’s residents.”
Incoming Board Chair, John Albrecht, Marketing Manager for Port of Oakland at Oakland International Airport, said, “The Port of Oakland is a tremendous economic driver in the Bay Area and globally, and we are thrilled at the new opportunities represented by this evolution of our partnership with Visit Oakland. I’m incredibly proud of the remarkable work that Visit Oakland has done to raise awareness about all that our city has to offer, and I look forward to capitalizing on that work as we set our aims on new heights.”
For a full list of the Visit Oakland board of directors and executive committee, see below:
Board of Directors Executive Committee
Chair: John Albrecht, Port of Oakland
Past Chair: Mark Hochstatter, Executive Inn & Suites and Bayside Hotel, a Best Western Plus
Vice Chairs #1: Gyasi Edwards, Booking.com
Vice Chairs #2: Christopher Sullivan, Oakland Marriott City Center & Oakland Convention Center
Secretary: Anand Patel, Piedmont Place
Treasurer: John Marsh, District (restaurant in Old Oakland)
At-Large: V. Toni Adams, Retired Alameda County Office of Education
Emeritus: Sam Nassif, Z Hotel Jack London Square
Board of Directors
Thomas Cavanagh, BANADLOOP
Carl Chan, Oakland Chinatown Chamber Foundation
Jeffery Durkin, Waterfront Hotel
Barney Fonzi, Diablo Publications
Charles Head, Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel
Barbara Leslie, Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Dr. Joel Parrott, Oakland Zoo
Dhruv Patel, Rigdemont Hospitality
Paresh Patel, The Washington Inn
Michael LeBlanc, Playt Restaurant
Patten Wood, FLRish Retail Management
Mark Everton, Visit Oakland CEO
