Colleen Laurain

I've been in the hotel industry for over 25 plus years, always in leadership roles. Currently, I'm working as a Task Force Director of Sales and Marketing with Pyramid Hospitality Group at a 5-star luxury property in Seattle, Washington. What task force means is that I'm kind of here to save the day until they find someone with my experience and background to be here on a permanent basis. The company reached out to me when their director of sales and marketing was departing for another opportunity, and I was able to fly 7 hours across the country from Tampa, Florida on short notice. Within 5 weeks, I was able to regroup the team, be the leader that I feel they needed in place, and now ownership is extremely happy and everyone is exceeding their numbers. My key responsibilities include working with the leadership group from each department, forecasting, ensuring guest satisfaction is in place, identifying new business and new opportunities, and getting business in the door before competitors can. I'm a solution maker - that's my most notable professional achievement, just making business happen. I've also done conversions and new builds throughout my career, and I have a strong sense for figuring out ahead of time if a hotel is going to be successful just because of demographics and economic development. Before hospitality, I was with Revlon Cosmetics, which is how I relocated to Florida, but I put myself back into school to follow my dream of working in the hospitality industry.