This book includes a plain text version that is designed for high accessibility. To use this version please follow this link.
plenary ‘A Wild and Emerging Industry’ WHAT’S YOUR STORY?


Paul Astleford


Digging In Paul Astleford (left) and Hilton Worldwide’s Ted Ratcliff break ground on the Hilton Columbus Downtown in July 2010.


And from there I left Penn State and ended up joining an organization which was one of the first third-party compa- nies ever, called Leonard Hicks Inter- national Hotel Representatives. And my first job was in Washington, D.C., and I was a salesperson for Leonard Hicks, selling the association world and con- ventions to hotels around the world.


A


t the end of this month, Paul Astleford retires after more than 40 years in the meetings and hospitality industry — the last 13 of them as president and CEO


of Experience Columbus. He shares with Convene his journey from aerospace-engineering student to Dean Martin drinking buddy to transformative leader.


I was in aerospace engineering at Penn State, and this goes back to 1965. If you check your record books you will find that the aerospace industry, Lockheed Martin being one of them, was going bankrupt. And I had a counselor at Penn State who talked about me and aerospace engineering and the fact that I was going to have a tough time getting a job if I stuck to that. And I said, “So what do you recommend?” And she said, “Well, one of the things you could


22 PCMA CONVENE DECEMBER 2012


look at …,” and she mentioned a bunch [of possible fields].


One of them was leisure-time industries and how they were growing. I said, “What’s leisure-time industries?” She said, “Well, we have a hospitality school here at Penn State.” I was not going to be able to do much in the aerospace world, and so I signed up for hotel and institution management, or something like that. And so that started my career.


After Leonard Hicks, I ended up being the director of sales at the Hyatt in Monterey, Calif. Talk about memories. I remember Dean Martin was staying at the hotel, and we had a little golf course out back, and the general manager asked if I would take Dean over to the country club behind our hotel. This was in the morning. I drove Dean over. And we got to the clubhouse and Dean said, “Is the bar open?” And I said, “No, I don’t think so, but let me check.” So we had the guy come into the bar and ask Dean what he wanted. He said, “Give me some gin.” And the guy took what was like a water glass and put some gin in the bottom of it. And Dean said, “No, fill it up.” [Laughs.] He had a water glass full of gin that he drank right there on the spot before going out to play golf. Never forgot that.


Anyhow, I went from Monterey to San Jose, and was a director of sales at the San Jose Hyatt. Then from San Jose I opened the Hyatt Regency San Fran- cisco. That was May of 1973. And then in ’78 I went to the corporate office to work for Joe Kordsmeier, who was the vice president of sales at the time. That was in Chicago.


When I joined Hyatt in 1970, there were literally five motels. That was it. And by the time I left in 1987, Hyatt had 150 hotels. Those were incredible, incred- ible days growing up in the industry. I


PCMA.ORG


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156