Melissa Graham

I've been in the hotel business for about four years now, starting on the food and beverage side in 2022 after coming from a restaurant background. I joined the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown as the food and beverage manager, overseeing our restaurant, lounge, coffee shop, and all 60,000 square feet of banquet space. It was a significant change going from smaller restaurant operations to managing dinners for 1,400 people, but I learned so much from our incredibly tenured staff, including team members who had been with us for 47 and 54 years. In November 2024, I transitioned to sales and became one of the group sales managers, focusing on sports groups, military, education, religious, and fraternal markets. I work with everyone from professional sports teams like MLB, NFL, and NHL to amateur sports groups, dance competitions, and nonprofits. We're the largest convention hotel in western Pennsylvania with 712 guest rooms, which gives us the ability to host large-scale groups and offer tremendous flexibility. After expanding my market in September of this past year, I booked almost $1.2 million worth of business in just the last quarter, which I'm incredibly proud of. What I love most is working with such diverse groups and being part of an amazing team. The people here are part of the reason I wanted to move into sales, and I wouldn't change it for the world.