The International Association of Conference Centres has named U.K.–based conference center veteran Mark Cooper to the new role of chief executive officer.
The appointment comes in the wake of Tom Bolman’s decision to retire after 30 years as IACC’s executive vice president.
The choice, according to St. Louis–based IACC, reflects a path toward “a more globally focused future” for the association, a vision that was outlined in a task force report, “IACC’s Roadmap to the Future.” The association’s president, Peter Stewart, director of operations at Australia’s Macquarie Graduate School of ManagementExecutive Conference Center, says the appointment “greatly enhances our global ability to provide a more effective interface among the IACC chapters, their boards of directors, staff, members, and stakeholders and to continue to increase global awareness of the IACC meeting experience.”
Cooper has been an IACC member for about 15 years and until recently served on both its European and Global boards. He has held senior posts with Dolce Hotels & Resorts, Sundial Group, and Warwick Conferences, and most recently headed up a consulting company called Innovatia Hospitality Ltd.
“My aim is to raise IACC’s profile and awareness and to deliver membership growth globally,” Cooper said in a statement. “We will move to develop and expand IACC and to provide new exciting member benefits.”
Cooper, who will be based in the short term in a home office in Long Itchington, U.K., begins with IACC on October 8. He will work with Bolman until Bolman’s retirement at the end of the year.