Visit Mobile Promotes, Hires, Creates Department

Visit Mobile has announced a hiring, internal promotions and structural shifts in the organization. Tom White has been hired as the new vice president of convention and leisure sales. He most recently worked for Yedla Hotel Management Co. as corporate director of marketing, supporting 22 properties. Patty Kieffer has been promoted to senior vice president. She has worked for Visit Mobile for 23 years in the roles of convention sales manager, national sales manager, senior national sales manager, director of leisure tourism and vice president of convention and leisure sales. Finally, Derrick Williams has been promoted to director of multicultural accounts. He served in the hospitality industry for almost 30 years and has been a senior national sales manager with Visit Mobile for the last four years. He has represented multiple hotel brands, such as Hilton, Marriott and The Fairmont Brands and was named “Sales Manager of the Year” for both Marriott and Hilton International. Additionally, Brittany Gagliano, partnership manager, has revived the Visit Mobile partnership program model and will now manage a standalone partnership department. Gagliano has been collaborating locally and nationally to reimagine the partnership model after a COVID-19-induced hiatus of three years. During this period, Visit Mobile has supported but not charged dues to local partners. The new program will launch in March to support local hotels, restaurants, attractions and other businesses to drive value and alignment to their businesses and the destination. Gagliano graduated from Spring Hill College, then worked with Mobile United, where she was engaged with the community for five years before joining Visit Mobile nine months ago. Visit Mobile plans to continue to expand as tourism initiatives such as culinary travel, adventure travel/ecotourism, and cultural heritage travel grow.