The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Conference Heart has a brand new President/CEO, and it’s a longtime hospitality govt and lodge chief from down the road.

Sheraton New Orleans Common Supervisor Jim Cook dinner, who has spent 26 years with Marriott Worldwide, has been named President/CEO of the New Orleans Conference Heart, following a confirmed appointment on Wednesday by the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Corridor Authority (Authority). Final 12 months, Cook dinner was appointed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a member of the Conference Heart’s 13-person oversight board.

The Conference Heart has looked for a brand new President/CEO since former chief Michael Sawaya left in November 2024 to take the identical management function at Audubon Nature Institute. After Sawaya’s announcement, the Conference Heart’s Chief Administrative Officer Alita G. Caparotta stepped in as interim President/CEO.

Cook dinner will assume the management place in August 2025, and he’ll information the general strategic path and operations for the Conference Heart, which has generated greater than $90.1 billion in native financial impression since its opening in 1985. The Conference Heart is the sixth largest in america with 1.1 million sq. ft of exhibit area.

“Bringing in a pacesetter of Jim’s caliber, expertise and information of the native market is a key and significant step for the Conference Heart,” stated Russ W. Allen, President of the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Exhibition Corridor Authority. “This function calls for somebody with the experience, management and imaginative and prescient to construct on our momentum and advance progress for New Orleans. Jim’s trade information and dedication to excellence will likely be invaluable in shaping the Conference Heart’s future.”

Cook dinner started his profession in 1999 because the Meals and Beverage Director on the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Lodge. He later assumed his first GM function on the Doubletree Lodge Virginia Seashore and held a number of management positions with Marriott throughout Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Orleans, together with serving as Senior Director of Franchise Operations for the Northeast. For the final decade, he has served because the GM for the Sheraton New Orleans Lodge, the place he oversaw all elements of operations for 1,110 visitor rooms and 100,000 sq. ft of assembly area, whereas additionally main the lodge’s neighborhood engagement initiatives.

All through his 26-year profession with Marriott, Cook dinner efficiently led quite a few repositioning of inns, together with model conversions, main renovations and asset gross sales. Cook dinner holds a bachelor’s diploma in meals service administration and an affiliate diploma in culinary arts from Johnson & Wales College in Rhode Island, in addition to a grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration from Louisiana State College Shreveport. He has held roles with New Orleans & Firm, the Downtown Improvement District, and the New Orleans Police & Justice Basis.

“I’m honored to step into the function of President and CEO of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Conference Heart and lead an establishment that’s so integral to the town’s financial and cultural panorama,” stated Cook dinner. “The Conference Heart is a cornerstone of New Orleans’ hospitality trade, driving enterprise, tourism and alternative. I wish to thank Alita for her regular management as interim President and CEO. It’s her steerage that has positioned us effectively for continued progress. I sit up for working with our workforce, companions and stakeholders to construct on our success and increase our contributions to the town and its financial system.”

The New Orleans Conference Heart is within the midst of a $557 million Capital Enchancment Plan, which has included near $300 million spent to date on trendy designs, technical upgrades, and sustainable enhancements, together with an energy-efficient roofing system; renovations and expertise upgrades of lobbies, exhibition halls, public areas, corridors, and assembly rooms; elevated eating experiences; a transportation hub; and a pedestrian park.

Conference Heart leaders are additionally engaged on the event of the Omni New Orleans headquarters lodge and the River District venture. The estimated $1 billion and 40-acre River District improvement will characteristic a 142,000-square-foot Class A workplace constructing anchored by Shell`s Gulf of Mexico operations and its 800 workers, together with leisure, greenspaces, inns, eating places, retail, places of work, and mixed-income flats.

With $30 million in infrastructure work starting final June and building on the Class A workplace tower commencing in Q1 2025, New Orleans is starting to see the primary tangible indicators of the River District. Nevertheless, the River District suffered a setback this week when it was introduced that the Topgolf venture was canceled. The event would have been a 67,000-square-foot sports activities and leisure venue on Tchoupitoulas St.

In January 2025, the Authority permitted a headquarters lodge improvement settlement and floor lease settlement with Omni Accommodations & Resorts to develop a 1,000-room headquarters lodge that can anchor the $557 million conference heart renovation and upgrades. The lodge is anticipated to interrupt floor in 2026.

“Jim is getting into this function at a pivotal time for the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Conference Heart,” stated Walt Leger III, President and CEO of New Orleans & Firm. “With essential tasks just like the headquarters lodge on the horizon, we’d like sturdy strategic foresight to information these efforts in an more and more aggressive setting. Jim is a considerate chief who places his workforce and folks first, a nationally revered lodge govt, a former chairman and a long-time board member of New Orleans & Firm with a deep understanding of New Orleans’ distinctive tourism panorama.

Leger added: “His collaborative strategy will strengthen the partnership between the conference heart, New Orleans & Firm and the higher hospitality neighborhood to drive large-scale conventions, conferences and occasions to New Orleans and Louisiana and show why New Orleans is uniquely Constructed to Host.”