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Black Meetings & Tourism October/November 2009: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 8 Daniel Fenton, CEO of Team San Jose in California, has been elected chair of the Board of Directors of Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI). Fenton's term began at the 95th Annual Convention held in Atlanta, Georgia in July. DMAI is the world's largest association for destination marketing organizations (DMOs). With offices in North America and Europe, DMAI is dedicated to improv- ing the effectiveness of destination marketing organizations worldwide. As CEO of Team San Jose, Fenton has guided the organization through unprece- dented growth, market diversification, and a shifting economic climate. His leader- ship was essential in the creation of the innovative Team San Jose Model, a unique partnership between the arts, hotel, labor, and business communities that provides renowned seamless "one team" event service for meeting planners that was awarded sweeping responsibility for the San Jose tourism industry. Over the past five years, Team San Jose has become a major economic driver in Silicon Valley, evolving into a US$20 million company with more than 300 employees. He has been an active DMAI member for 12 years, contributing time to DMO resource development and industry initiatives including the DMAI Executive Committee, DMAI-IAAM Liaison Group, the Futures Study Task Force, MINT Committee, and DMAI/TIA Task Force. He has assisted in the development of an industry whitepaper, in which he challenged DMOs to go beyond logistics management and serve as strategic partners, helping clients achieve their meeting goals. "Dan has show immense commitment to the industry and to DMAI throughout his career," said Michael D. Gehrisch, president & CEO of DMAI. "We look forward to sharing in his innovative and fresh ideas to invig- orate the association in the coming year." "I'm really looking forward to working with an incredible team of staff and volunteer leaders to help take DMAI to a new level of leadership," said Fenton. "During my tenure I am committed driving the concept that national partnerships between key industries are vital to DMAI members. I will encourage partners such as arts, hotel chains, and organized labor to work with DMAI to elevate the meeting industry's profile and make seamless customer service a nationwide priority for the benefit of meeting planners. Fenton will also focus this year on positioning DMAI as an industry leader by raising its profile as an advo- cate for members and rethinking its message. He will guide DMAI's US$4 million campaign to generate real outcomes for members, raise its public affairs profile, increase social responsibility initiatives and increase tech- nology advancements that makes vital information exchange easier with members. N E W S M A K E R S Haitian-American travel executive Caroline Racine is nimbly climbing the corpo- rate ladder at Choice Hotels International. Racine, who ran the company's Caribbean Franchise Development efforts for two and a half years, is now director of Diversity Sales within the organization's global sales division, taking responsibility for the growing multi-cultural markets segment. Diversity and Multicultural Sales is a new division within the company's Global Sales department and in the newly established role Racine will be responsible for devel- oping strategic direct sales, marketing and e-commerce solutions to help propel Choice as a leader in what is becoming a very competitive market segment. She was recently in Haiti to help establish relationships with key tourism and hotel stakeholders. In September, she was in the US Virgin Islands for the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association's Small Hotels Retreat to introduce Icaza to the small hotel community and to announce her new role with the company. Racine said she is already fully immersed in her new assignment and looks forward to working with Caribbean leaders in the region's global Diaspora. Before joining Choice 11 years ago, Caroline Racine was lead account executive for America Online's interactive partnership marketing initiatives. She has also served in various sales and marketing positions in organizations such as The Discovery Channel. CARIBBEAN-AMERICAN TO LEAD DIVERSITY SALES AT CHOICE DANIEL FENTON BEGINS TERM AS DESTINATION MARKETING ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL (DMAI) CHAIR