Best Western announces two key executive promotions

PHOENIX, AZ – Best Western Hotels & Resorts today announced the promotions of Tammy Lucas to vice president of marketing and Bruce Wienberg to vice president of operations. These promotions come at an exciting time in the brand’s history – just months after unveiling a new look and new name for the iconic brand.

Both Wienberg and Lucas will play key roles as Best Western continues to refresh the brand, ensuring today’s Best Western is inviting, stylish and fresh, and surpasses the expectations of today’s travelers. With a diverse collection of more than 4,100 properties in more than 100 countries, Best Western introduced its new contemporary masterbrand Best Western Hotels & Resorts, as well as unique logos for several of its seven individual hotel brands. The company is also in the midst of deploying more than $2 billion in property improvements and renovations across North America, and rolling out two new boutique brands, Vīb® and GLō℠.

“It is with great excitement that I announce the promotions of Tammy Lucas and Bruce Wienberg. Both Tammy and Bruce have made substantive contributions to Best Western and I know they will continue to help shape the brand’s future as we move forward,” said David Kong, president and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

During her tenure at Best Western, Lucas has led regional marketing, Best Western Rewards®, brand marketing, digital marketing, advertising and, most recently, the brand’s distribution partnerships.

Lucas has substantial marketing, sales and operations experience with a passion for inspiring teams to surpass goals both professionally and personally. In her current role, Lucas leads the marketing and advertising teams by setting the strategy and direction for key deliverables on brand marketing and advertising, Best Western Rewards®, digital marketing, digital partnerships, direct marketing and search.

Under her leadership, Best Western Rewards, the chain’s loyalty program, doubled the program’s membership and revenue to member properties in less than five years, and gift card sales increased more than 50 percent. She also led the complete overhaul and rebranding of Best Western Rewards in 2009. In 2012, Lucas was named by Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International as one of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales & Marketing for her tremendous contributions in shaping the Best Western Rewards program.

Bruce Wienberg began his career with Best Western in 2003 providing training, consulting and quality assurance assessments for more than 50 hotels in western Canada and the United States.

Wienberg served in various roles and was promoted to serve as the director of International Quality Assurance in 2008. In this role he enhanced global brand standards through assessment audits, quality assurance, brand identity and operational training for Best Western hotels in 100+ countries. He also manages the Customer Relations Department call center working directly with guests, hotel owners and their staff to help provide solutions to accommodations, service, reservations and billing issues. In 2013, he took on the added responsibilities of quality assurance for all North American properties, along with the company’s education and training efforts, guest satisfaction program, member compliance communications and brand identity departments.