(St. Louis, MO) -- October 25, 2012-- At the recent meeting of the Board of Directors of IACC-Americas, new officers were elected for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2014.

T.J. Fimmano, General Manager at Dolce Hotels and Resorts/GE Crotonville in Ossining, NY was elected President having served most recently as First Vice President of the Board of Directors.  T.J. served on the Annual Conference Planning Board for eight years, and was Co-Chair of the 25th and 26th Annual Conferences.  A member of the Board of Directors since 2006, he also served on the Quality Committee as Co-Chair of the Sustainability Task Force which introduced the IACC Code of Sustainability and was a member of the IACC’ s 2.0 Task Force which developed IACC’s Roadmap for the Future.

Leslie Vanderzwet, General Manager, Conferences at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada  was elected First Vice President having served as Treasurer of the Board of Directors.  Since joining IACC in 1999, Leslie has been active on the Annual Conference Planning Committee for eight years, participating in Production, Marketing, and Food & Beverage.   She also served as Co-Chair of the Sustainability Task Force which introduced the Code of Sustainability , was Chair and Director of the Marketing Committee and was part of the IACC 2.0 Task Force which developed IACC’s Roadmap for the Future.

T.J. Fimmano	Leslie Vanderzwet	Sean Anderson	Eric Whitson	Alex Cabañas

Sean Anderson, VP Operations for Sodexo Conferencing was elected Second Vice President. Sean has been on the Board of Directors for five years and IACC’s Global Board of Directors for two years, where he Chairs the Education, Industry Alliances and Trends Committee. He was Chair of the Leadership Development Committee and has actively served on the organization’s Marketing and Member2Member Committees for several years. He most recently served as Secretary of the Board of Directors.

Eric Whitson, Director of Sales & Marketing at The National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA was elected Treasurer.  Eric has served the Board of Directors for four years and has been active in IACC for eight years serving as Chair and Co-Chair of the Marketing Committee and facilitating educational programs.  He developed the IACC Sales Toolkit, collaborated in the Customer Roundtables programs, and served as Co-Chair of the global branding committee as part of the IACC Roadmap for the Future.

Alex Cabañas, President, Business Development & Finance for Benchmark Hospitality International was elected Secretary.  Alex has been actively involved with IACC since 2006 when he joined the Emerging Trends Committee and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2010.  He served as Co-Chair of the IACC 2.0 Task Force developing IACC’s Roadmap for the Future and the CEO Selection Committee.

The IACC Mission Statement: The International Association of Conference Centres is the thought leader on the meeting experience. IACC represents its members by defining and promoting the IACC Meeting Concept and providing learning opportunities.

The IACC Vision: “IACC is a community of passionate people and organizations delivering innovative and exceptional meeting experiences.”

Founded in 1981, the International Association of Conference Centres is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting understanding and awareness of the conference center industry and to giving member properties the tools necessary to provide an exceptional meeting experience. Active members meet a set of stringent Universal Criteria and agree to a Code of Ethics. Currently, the association includes approximately 400 members from the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, France, England, The Netherlands, Germany and Japan. For more information, visit the website at www.iacconline.org.  “There are meetings and then there are IACC meetings."