Wendy Kallergis, the chief of the Larger Miami and the Seashores Resort Affiliation (GMBHA), has introduced her retirement from the place of President and CEO. Serving the group for practically twenty years, Kallergis will step down from her function on December 31, 2024.
All through her tenure, Kallergis has considerably contributed to the expansion and fame of GMBHA, making it the biggest resort lodging group in Miami-Dade County. Her efforts have fostered unity and collaboration among the many journey, tourism, hospitality professionals, and authorities and enterprise leaders at native, nationwide, and worldwide ranges.
Throughout her management, Kallergis launched the Sustainable Hospitality Council to advertise eco-friendly practices within the trade. She additionally performed an important function in navigating the group via the COVID-19 pandemic and the Zika virus outbreak.
Kallergis is broadly credited for reworking Miami right into a top-tier vacation spot for main occasions and cultural tourism, enhancing its international fame. In collaboration with the Larger Miami Conference & Guests Bureau (GMCVB), she attracted vital occasions to Miami-Dade, together with the Tremendous Bowl and the 2020 Democratic Nationwide Conference.
Earlier than becoming a member of GMBHA, Kallergis served because the President and CEO of the Miami Seaside Chamber of Commerce for over a decade. Underneath her management, the Chamber grew to become an important power locally, selling financial progress and advocating for business-friendly insurance policies.
Born right into a restaurant household, Kallergis earned her B.A. in French Language from George Washington College and attended the College of Paris, the Cordon Bleu L’Ecole de Delicacies, and the Fashionable Gourmand Cooking College in Annecy, France. She then continued her work within the culinary arts in Washington, D.C., earlier than establishing her profession in Miami.
As Kallergis prepares to retire, the GMBHA has begun the seek for a successor. Curtis Crider, the previous Chairman of Jungle Island Resort, will function Co-CEO to help with the management transition.
All through her profession, Kallergis has acquired quite a few accolades, together with the South Florida Enterprise Journal’s Influential Enterprise Girls Award, the American Resort & Lodging Affiliation’s Girls in Lodging Join Chief of the 12 months Award, and HSMAI South Florida Chapter’s 2020 Hospitality Legend of the 12 months. Her retirement marks the conclusion of an influential interval of management for the GMBHA.