The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau has named its new president to replace Bill Peeper, who retired after 22 years at the post. Gary C. Sain, chief marketing officer and a partner at the Orlando-based hospitality advertising and public relations firm Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown and Russell, will take helm of the bureau that Peeper built up from a staff of two (including himself) to a bureau with the second-highest budget in the country and a staff of 150.
Sain begins work at the bureau February 12 with a resume that includes experience as executive vice president of sales and marketing for GES Exposition Services; senior vice president of sales, marketing, and passenger services for Premier Cruise Line; assistant vice president of sales for Hyatt Hotels Corp.; and corporate vice president sales/marketing for the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Washington, D.C., and New York.
Sain earned a B.S. degree with a major in business administration and a minor in marketing from Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, W.V. His professional affiliations include the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International and Meeting Professionals International, and he has served on the advisory council of the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Sain is a past chairman of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, past executive committee member of the Cruise Line International Association, and past board member of HSMAI.