Meet Chicago Northwest finds new president from within

Directors of Meet Chicago Northwest, the Schaumburg-based visitors bureau and marketing organization for eight communities in the Northwest suburbs, have found their new president in Heather Larson, the agency's longtime director of sales.

Executive Committee Chair Dieter Heigl, who is also general manager of the Schaumburg Convention Center and its adjoining Renaissance Hotel, said there was a fair amount of significance in the coincidence of Larson's appointment occurring on the first day of Illinois' Phase Five of reopening.

"With Heather Larson, we have continuity, we have experience, and we have a solid team behind her," Heigl said.

Larson, a resident of Des Plaines, said she too appreciated the serendipity of her new position beginning on the same day as the state's full reopening.

"I'm excited to lead the recovery effort for the hotel industry," she said. "It's no secret they've been hit harder than anyone else. We lost almost all of our group visits."

Though weddings and other weekend events are demonstrating a certain amount of pent-up demand for gatherings and travel, the restoration of weekday business travel is going to require a little more time and work, Larson said.

Just as different companies have different attitudes toward when to return to their own offices, so too with the return to business travel, she added.

Larson's career began in the early 1990s after graduation from the University of Wisconsin Madison when she became a sales manager at the Bismarck Hotel, now the Allegro Royal Sonesta, in Chicago's financial district. She then moved to The Whitehall Hotel, The Drake Hotel and The Fairmont Hotel Chicago respectively before working for three years with HelmsBriscoe, eventually taking some time off to raise her two children.

Larson joined the visitors bureau as a sales manager in December 2010 before becoming its director of sales in 2014. She succeeds Dave Parulo, who left in early May to become president and CEO of the Washington County Visitors Association in Beaverton, Oregon.