. . . Presented By ASAE & The Center For Association Leadership This Highly-Coveted Award Is The Highest Individual Honor To An Industry Partner For Exceptional Leadership
ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership will present David Gabri, president and CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), with its prestigious “Academy of Leaders Award.” The highly-respected award is ASAE & The Center’s highest individual honor given to an industry partner who has demonstrated exemplary support of ASAE & The Center and the entire association community. Gabri is the sole recipient of the award this year, and is just the 23rd recipient to ever receive the honor. The award will be presented to Gabri at ASAE & The Center’s 2010 Annual Meeting & Exposition, August 21-24, 2010, in Los Angeles.
“I’m truly honored to receive this prestigious award which recognizes ALHI’s and my deep personal commitment to ASAE, and the vital association community,” said Gabri. “Serving associations and their executives and planners throughout North America has been a privilege to me over so many years, and ASAE has been a driving force in educating me and creating an environment that has allowed me to develop so many valued relationships.”
Gabri is president and CEO of ALHI (www.alhi.com), which has served the association, corporate meetings, and conventions marketplaces for nearly 25 years. ALHI provides dedicated National Sales services for its extraordinary membership of more than 125 Four- and Five-Diamond quality hotels and resorts worldwide, which all specialize in meetings, conventions, and incentive programs. ALHI enables organizations with reliable one-call local-access to its outstanding member hotels and resorts via its 16 professionally staffed National Sales offices located throughout North America. As ALHI is an authorized dues-based organization, there is no cost to planners’ organizations to utilize the services of ALHI, as its members’ dues fund the national sales service.
ALHI’s distinctive portfolio features more than 100,000 rooms and suites and over 10 million square feet of meeting space. Member properties include extraordinary meeting and incentive resorts, incomparable city hotels, exclusive smaller hotels, golf resorts, historic and landmark properties, island destinations, resorts with spas, properties in international destinations, and hotels with world-class gaming and entertainment. To see the ALHI portfolio, visit www.alhi.com .
Gabri has over 30 years of experience in the hotel and resort industry, with significant marketing and sales leadership experience, which spans regional sales, hotel operator, manager, asset manager, owner representative, and entrepreneur. Prior to acquiring ALHI in 2003, Gabri was executive vice president for Tishman Hotel Corporation, and executive vice president and partner of Buena Vista Hospitality Group. He has served on ASAE & The Center’s AAA Strategic Planning, International and Branding Committees. He is a member of the Meeting Professionals International MPI Industry Advisory Panel, and is the Past Chairman of the Meeting Professionals International MPI Foundation Board of Trustees, and was a member of the International Board of Directors for Meeting Professionals International.
Two other individuals will also receive awards at the ASAE Annual Meeting in August. David Parker, CAE, president and CEO of the American Gas Association, will receive the “Key Award,” ASAE & The Center’s highest honor bestowed upon association chief executives. R. Norris Orms, executive vice president and COO of the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS), will receive the “Professional Performance Award,” which recognizes invaluable contributions made by association executives who are at the top level within their organizations but are not CEOs.
“This year’s leadership awards are going to some of the most deserving association and industry leaders. Their commitment to the association community and dedication to the profession has been demonstrated with decades of experience and countless contributions to their respective organizations and the entire industry. I’m proud to serve ASAE and the profession along with Dave Gabri, Dave Parker and Norris Orms, who are an inspiration to us all,” said Susan Bitter Smith, CAE, executive director of the Arizona-New Mexico Cable Communications Association and chairman of the 2010 Awards Committee.
ASAE is a membership organization of more than 22,000 association executives and industry partners representing more than 11,000 organizations. Its members manage leading trade associations, individual membership societies and voluntary organizations across the United States and in nearly 50 countries around the world. With support of the ASAE Foundation, a separate nonprofit entity, ASAE is the premier source of learning, knowledge and future-oriented research for the association and nonprofit profession, and provides resources, education, ideas and advocacy to enhance the power and performance of the association and nonprofit community. For more information about ASAE, visit www.asaecenter.org .
