The Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau (CTCSB) has elected: John A. O’Toole as its new Vice Chair; Thomas Madden, AICP, as Assistant Treasurer of its Board of Directors; and added Jeff L. Hubbard and Brian Summers as the Bureau’s newest Board members, effective on July 1, 2017. All four were elected at the CTCSB’s Annual Meeting, held June 1 at the Courtyard by Marriott Hartford-Cromwell.
“John O’Toole, Thomas Madden, Jeff Hubbard and Brian Summers each bring a unique perspective to our statewide Board of Directors, through expertise and experiences in their respective professions,” explains H. Scott Phelps, President of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau (CTCSB) the State’s official meetings and sports event sales and marketing organization. “They advocate the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau’s focused work to generate new dollars for Connecticut through meetings, conventions and sports events that result in economic activity, jobs and tax revenues for our State and local economies. We look forward to their insight and guidance as we move forward in strengthening our organization’s many partnerships.”
John A. O’Toole is Community Relations and Economic Development Lead for Eversource. He is responsible for supporting the companies’ efforts in the community, economic policy, business and community development in Connecticut, and serves as the company’s chief liaison to key state and regional economic development organizations. A longtime supporter of the importance of the conventions and major events to the State’s economy, he has been a CTCSB Board member ever since the organization was established in 2012, and serves as its Assistant Treasurer until July 1 when he becomes the Vice Chair. Prior to that, he served as an Advisory Board member of the former Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau which expanded in 2012 to cover the entire state as the CTCSB. O’Toole lives in Marlborough, Conn.
Thomas Madden, AICP, is Director of Economic Development for the City of Stamford, Conn. and the Executive Director for Stamford’s Urban Redevelopment Commission. During his career, Madden has been instrumental in the development of new economic and environment standards for the communities he has served, including administrative procedures and policies to retain, restore and expand the commercial and industrial tax base, adoption of Green Building code for new site development, revisions to the Energy Star code, Energy Improvement Financing for commercial properties, and oversight of the approval and development of numerous large-scale developments. Madden is an advocate for promoting Connecticut’s assets to help to bring new meetings and sports events business to Connecticut. Prior to coming to Stamford in 2014, he was the Commissioner of the Department of Community Development and Conservation for the Town of Greenburgh, NY. Madden is a resident of Stratford, Conn.
Jeff L. Hubbard is President and Commercial Sales Leader for KeyBank’s Connecticut and Western Massachusetts market, and is the President of the Key Serving Company. Prior to the acquisition of First Niagara Bank by KeyBank in 2016, Hubbard served as First Niagara’s New England Regional President. He joined that company in 2015 from TD Bank, N.A., where he served for six years, most recently as Regional Vice President, Commercial Banking in the Hartford region, and was responsible for leading the bank’s commercial, middle market and small business lending activities statewide. Prior to TD Bank, Hubbard was Senior Risk Officer for Bank of America and was Senior Vice President and Manager for Webster Bank, with responsibilities in Conn., Mass., NY and RI. Earlier in his career, he served in senior management positions with Fleet Bank and Merrill Lynch. Hubbard is a Guilford, Conn. resident.
Brian Summers is General Manager of the newly renovated Heritage Hotel & Conference Center in Southbury, Conn. He has spent more than 30 years in management roles in the hotel and hospitality industry, working in and managing properties across the U.S., from Hawaii to Connecticut. He began his career in Food & Beverage, and soon was fast-tracked to open Hyatt hotels in Arizona and Hawaii, as well as lead management roles in properties in California and Arizona. Summers was the General Manager of Crowne Plaza Hotels in Cromwell and Southbury, Conn., and in Cherry Hill, NJ, before moving to Chesapeake Hospitality where he was Area Director of Operations for hotels from Tennessee to Florida. He recently returned to Connecticut to run the Heritage Hotel & Conference Center for The Marshall Hotel Group. Summers lives in Downtown Hartford.
The Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau (CTCSB) is a public-private partnership that is funded by dues from members and by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and Connecticut Office of Tourism. Working in partnership with the state’s businesses, institutions, nonprofit organizations, and their surrounding communities, the CTCSB markets all of the state – convention and meeting venues, hotels and attractions, and sporting venues – as a premier destination for international, national, regional and statewide conferences, conventions and sports events. In fiscal year, 2015-2016, CTCSB business resulted in more than $61.6 million spent by convention, meeting and sports events attendees during their visits to the state, generating more than $4.7 million in Connecticut taxes. Over 22,500 Connecticut jobs in the hospitality industry were supported by these events as a result of these bookings.* The Connecticut Sports Advisory Board, a division of the CTCSB, focuses its efforts on attracting and serving international, national and regional sporting events. The CTCSB’s annual “Bring It Home Awards” recognize state residents for their contributions in helping to secure these kinds of revenue-generating booking. For more information about the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau, visit www.CTmeetings.org or call
860-728-6789.
*DMAI economic calculator FY 2015-2016