Lotus Marketing Leadership Team

“Try to be the rainbow in someone’s cloud.” - Maya Angelou

A fixer by nature, there is nothing April loves more than to devise strategic plans of action to help clients achieve success based on their goals, regardless of any challenges that stand in the way.

She has nearly 25 years of expertise in the planning, development, and implementation of marketing strategies across a wide spectrum of brands. April has a proven track record of tackling demanding business needs across all business segments, and her work has been revered as “best in class” in driving topline revenue for her clients.

April also specializes in complex brand execution. In partnership with the Autograph brand, April established the guiding principles for new hotel openings. She also played a formative role in the development of the Renaissance brand, establishing the field marketing infrastructure to support the new brand introduction.

“If I cannot do great things, may I do small things in great ways.”

Kim literally wrote the Marriott marketing playbook on openings, opening events, and activations, and has unparalleled expertise in hotel openings and renovations. With a passion for disciplined brand execution across all customer touchpoints, Kim has extensive experience in the hotel positioning process.

Her more than 25 years of experience conducting comprehensive marketing campaigns in the hospitality industry means Kim has managed dozens of brands including hotels, vacation packages, food and beverage outlets, spas, golf courses, senior living communities, and gaming outlets.

Kim’s career has been spent at a variety of major hospitality brands including Hilton, Preferred Hotel Group, MGM Mirage, The Mark Travel Corporation, and Marriott. Her specialty in launching new business ventures and shared service units helped to set the foundation for Lotus Marketing.

“The world is changed by examples, not opinions.” - Paolo Coelho

With over 22 years of hospitality marketing experience, Julie is a brand, marketing, and digital leader who gets results, as well as a revered coach, mentor, and team leader who leads by example.

She is responsible for planning, developing, and executing integrated full-funnel marketing strategies that drive awareness and increase profitability. Her strengths lie in creating targeted B2B and B2C marketing plans and initiatives comprising digital media, content marketing, search engine optimization, social media, video, photography, and public relations. And the results speak for themselves: significant revenue growth, improved online performance, and increased customer engagement. She is adept at building and cultivating strong partnerships with customers, stakeholders, executives and team members, resulting in successful and productive relationships.

As Senior Marketing Manager for Marriott Hotels, Julie led a team of nine professionals responsible for providing strategic marketing and business support to more than 75 hotels in Northern Mid-America. She also supported a portfolio of hotel accounts where she increased profitability through website content, digital marketing, social media, video, photography, and search engine optimization. Prior to joining Marriott, Julie worked at Hyatt Hotels where she held positions in Pricing, Marketing Operations, and was the on-property Marketing and PR Manager for the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa.

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”

Marie-Michèle’s passion is opening hotels. She is all about luxury hotels — branded or not — and simply loves defining the guest experience. She thrives on sales, creating relationships with partners and clients, learning, and designing new ways to make interactions, processes, and jobs at Lotus Marketing easier every day.

Marie-Michèle joins Lotus Marketing with over 15 years of hotel sales and marketing experience, most recently from the opening of Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection, where she was the Director of Sales and Marketing.

Marie-Michèle was also part of the Marriott Hotels New Builds and Transition team for two years, where she had the opportunity to open numerous luxury and lifestyle branded hotels. With a strong background in sales, she started her career opening the W Montreal and Le Crystal Hotel, but spent most of her career at Loews Hotels in sales and marketing.

Marie-Michèle is a language lover and speaks French, English and Spanish fluently (sometimes all in one sentence!).

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

Elizabeth shines in creating processes that make the Lotus team happy. Her hotel marketing expertise and management abilities make her a rockstar in collaborating with team members and finding ways to make the boring stuff a bit less so.

Prior to joining Lotus Marketing, Elizabeth held several roles within Marriott International’s Field Marketing team, managing various portfolios of hotels across both select and full-service brands in Chicago and the Great Lakes region of the Midwest. She also worked on the New Builds and Transition team, focusing on marketing operations, specifically enrollments, digital strategy, and billing. Elizabeth holds an MBA in Consumer Marketing from the University of Colorado, Denver, and a BA from Miami University.

"It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then."  - Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland

Jennifer brings the team at Lotus Marketing authentic compassion and an endless drive to find ways to make our lives better. It is no surprise that she is incredibly committed to helping others live with purpose.

As our Director of Human Resources, Jennifer keeps the company officially on track to ensure we are filing all of the paperwork necessary to run a business whether that be exempt status applications, various and sundry forms, and everything else you need to file regarding HR compliance when managing a crazy busy team of marketing professionals.

Jennifer started her career in the insurance industry about 25 years ago and later moved to human resources and operations. Her combined expertise with insurance, benefits, HR, and operations is an invaluable asset to our company.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."  - Confucius

Here’s how we describe Karla: a scrappy, savvy marketer who enjoys finding creative solutions for every type of client. Her marketing philosophy: Recognize "free and powerful" channels are as important (if not more) than a complex marketing budget. She believes a successful strategy incorporates a strong foundation of proven tactics enhanced with a few calculated risks and a dash of powerful creativity.

As Director of Marketing, Karla oversees a team of Senior Marketing Managers and Marketing Managers across the US.

Prior to joining Lotus Marketing, Karla spent nearly a decade with Marriott’s Field Marketing team. Her last position as a Senior Account Manager involved overseeing a team of Account Managers supporting 70+ hotels across Southern California. Some of her most notable hotel openings include Lido House, Autograph Collection and Marriott Irvine Spectrum.

With a diverse background in hospitality marketing and sales and operations, Karla has also held roles planning events for luxury incentive and pharmaceutical businesses and transforming Downtown Phoenix for six years at the Greater Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” - Paulo Coelho

Kenny specializes in supporting complex resorts with multiple outlets including restaurants, spa, and golf and his super power is bringing a holistic lens to understand all segments of business for his strategic marketing planning.

Kenny brings 15 years of hotel experience in sales and marketing to Lotus Marketing. He was

Director of Sales & Marketing at Avenue of the Arts, A Tribute Portfolio, and also led marketing departments for two franchise management companies. Additionally Kenny was a Founding Member of the Marriott Nextgen Business Council, an incubator for change and innovation among some of the most dynamic young business leaders.