The Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau has hired Lorne Edwards as its new director of sales.
Edwards joins the Greater Phoenix CVB after a 16-year sales career at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, where he most recently served as director of sales and marketing at two Boston-area hotels.
Edwards also spent three years as associate director of sales at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center. There, he was responsible for pre-opening sales operations, and he coordinated sales and marketing efforts with the convention center and Denver Metro CVB.
A native of Antigua in the West Indies, Edwards began his career with Hyatt in Orlando before being elevated to a senior sales position at one of Hyatt’s iconic flagship convention hotels in Atlanta.
Edwards will oversee the Greater Phoenix CVB’s 11-member sales team and report directly to Senior Vice President of Sales James Jessie. He will be assisted by Donn Oswald, who has been promoted to director of Midwest sales and West Coast resort sales at the CVB.
“Lorne brings a wealth of convention-center and in-house sales experience,” Jessie said. “And his experience comes from a hotelier’s perspective, which I think will be an asset not just to our sales efforts but to our symbiotic relationships with CVB-member hotels and resorts.”
Edwards received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Hospitality Management from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla. His industry memberships and affiliations include Meeting Professionals International and the American Society of Association Executives.
