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A Trion University graduate has been named president of Triumph Hotels in Tennessee.
Katie (Hester) Schultz graduated in 2011 with a degree in hospitality management. She has been with Triumph since 2017.
“Serving as president is a natural transition because all key team members already know me,” she said. “I am now more involved in day-to-day operations and have developed a closer working relationship with our General Manager and owners. My main goal is to implement processes that will increase efficiency and control expenses while increasing sales and improving customer satisfaction .”
The project is not suitable
Schultz was initially attracted to Trine’s engineering program and wanted to become a civil engineer. She visited the campus and fell in love with how walkable it was, how homely it felt, and the beautiful brick buildings.
As her first year at Trine came to a close, Schultz decided that engineering was not the career for her.
“Based on my passion and skills, I ultimately decided hospitality was the best fit,” she reflects.
“My grandmother played a huge role in my love of planning and entertaining. She taught me how to set a proper table, which I still enjoy doing every holiday. She shared recipes with me and Showed me how to make people feel welcome in your home. She worked with me to dream about the bed and breakfast I would have in the future. This foundation helped me become a party planner for my friend group and I thought becoming an event planner was a path A natural career path, so I chose hospitality management.”
While at Trine, Schultz completed an internship in her hometown that solidified her career path.
“I have the privilege of working as a sales coordinator at The Boulevard Inn & Bistro, a premier hotel in St. Joseph, Michigan,” she said. “I saw firsthand how various departments worked together to make the hotel run smoothly. I was offered a position to return to my country full-time after graduation. I happily accepted the role and worked there for about a year and a half.”
Travel to Tennessee
As much as Schutz loved the boulevards, she also wanted to experience a new city.
“I went to Nashville, Tennessee, for a weekend with a friend and fell in love with the city,” she said. “We went out to explore the town, got back to the hotel around 2 a.m., and I immediately started looking for a job. Country music, good barbecue, warm weather, Southern accents; what’s not to love?”
She found a job as a sales manager at the city’s Radisson Hotel, growing her knowledge of the sales process.
“I learned how to find business and differentiate myself from the competition,” she said. “I stayed at the Radisson for three years and the team there became my family. I met my husband there, we got married, we bought our first home and had our daughter. “
After her maternity leave, she decided to look for new opportunities and became the sales director of Holiday Inn Express, a subsidiary of Triumph Hotel Group. She was ultimately promoted to corporate vice president of sales before being appointed to her current position.
Founded in 2008, Triumph is a management, development and hotel ownership company and one of the fastest growing leaders in the hospitality industry.
The company’s hotel portfolio has grown from four to 10 hotels currently open, with five more under development.
“Triumph Hotels Group has grown tremendously since I joined the team. I am honored to be a part of building this company and witness the growth of our team,” she said. “We just opened the Motif on Music Row hotel in Nashville, which is a huge milestone. In 2017, I attended the first development meeting for this boutique hotel and was involved in hotel design, branding and the entire team. Recruitment. These experiences have kept me with this company; the ability to see a beautiful hotel and say I’m involved!”
While she enjoys Trine’s hospitality management program, she finds that she’s benefiting most from it now in accounting, marketing and technical writing. As a student, she was able to gain practical experience working in career services.
“I had no idea that planning resume writing workshops and helping students apply for jobs would have prepared me for the candidate reviews and interviews I now conduct on a regular basis,” she said.
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