William Morrissey
President, Morrissey Hospitality Inc.

William Morrissey is president and owner of Morrissey Hospitality Inc., a regional leader in Midwest hospitality management. Currently Morrissey Hospitality manages three hotels, six restaurants, and Wildside Catering.

Morrissey is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and has spent his entire career in hospitality management beginning as The Director of Sales for The Saint Paul Hotel. Mr. Morrissey also participated with the leadership team in opening both the Hyatt in downtown Minneapolis and the Scanticon Conference Center in Plymouth. He returned to the Saint Paul Hotel in 1988 serving as general manager until forming his own company in 1996 to bring the success formula at The Saint Paul Hotel to other clients and businesses in the region. These entities have enjoyed much recognition including: The Saint Paul Hotel, a 24 year AAA 4-diamond status and the distinction of being the only Minnesota hotel named to the Conde Nast Gold List of the world’s best places to stay. Morrissey Hospitality managed restaurants consistently place on the metros’ “best of” lists each year and Wildside Catering is acclaimed for the best arena and large scale event catering.

Morrissey has been very active in the hospitality community serving as chairman on the boards of Minnesota Lodging Association, Hospitality Minnesota, and Historic Hotels of America. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the American Hotel and Lodging Association and the National Trust for the Preservation. He twice chaired the St. Paul Convention and Tourism Bureau and was a six year board member of The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce.

Born in Bloomington, Minnesota, Morrissey currently resides in Eagan with his wife, Mary Jo, and has three grown children, Arthur, Christopher and Elizabeth. He enjoys spending time with his family, riding his motorcycle, and traveling.

Jack Noble
President, The Event Lab

Jack Noble is Owner and President of Event Lab, an award-winning destination and event management company based in the Twin Cities.

Jack heads a team at the solutions-based event company where the focus is on creative and unique design, décor, and destination management. Utilizing a wide spectrum of resources, services, and expertise, the Event Lab tailors each project to the specific needs of its diverse client base.

Prior to joining Event Lab, Jack was President and COO of Northwestern Travel, one of the largest corporate travel agencies in the world. Jack obtained an MBA from Carlson School of Management in 2000. His background includes vast experience in sales, operations, and finance.

He resides in Eden Prairie with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children.

Donna Foppoli Patrick, CMP, CMM
Manager, Group Meetings, Events & Travel, Medtronic, Inc.

In May 2007 Donna was appointed to the newly created role of Manager, Group Meetings, Events & Travel for Medtronic, Inc. headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this role Donna developed, launched, and now manages the company’s Strategic Meeting Management Program, Medtronic Meeting Solutions, that includes supplier partnerships, hotel sourcing, and contracting, meeting payment process, data tracking, and analytics. Prior to this role Donna was Senior Manager, Meetings & Events at Medtronic CardioVascular, a division of Medtronic, Inc. in Santa Rosa, California. For six years she led the department to a centralized event marketing model with higher level of visibility, strategic focus, and financial management activities.

Donna has over 17 years industry experience in meeting management and event planning and received industry designations in 1999 (CMP) and 2001 (CMM).

Daniel J. Young, CLU, ChFC, LLIF, CMP
Director of Event Planning and Field Recognition, Thrivent Financial

Currently Dan leads and manages a staff of ten event planners, event resource planners, and field recognition staff at Thrivent Financial. The team produces more than 150 events per year ranging from small corporate events to major off-shore sales incentive conferences. They also design and manage Thrivent’s field recognition programs to ensure tight coordination with Thrivent’s field incentive events.

Dan has worked for Thrivent Financial for 26 years. Over the years he has served as a sales trainer, manager of the field training department, and regional sales manager. In 1994 he led Thrivent’s field recognition and conference planning efforts as assistant vice-president of field services. In 2001, just after the merger of AAL and Lutheran Brotherhood, he was asked to design a corporate-wide event planning department in order to provide event planning services to a variety of sponsors across the organization. Because of this work, Dan was appointed to build and lead the new event planning department. In 2003 he was recognized as Event Planner of the Year by the Minnesota Chapter of MPI. In 2009 Dan was recognized as one of 20 Industry “Changemakers” by Corporate Meetings and Incentives Magazine. Dan serves as the 2010 President of the Financial and Insurance Conference Planners and has been on their board since 2006.

Dan is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.S. degree in Sociology, holds the Certified Meeting Professional, Chartered Financial Consultant, Charted Life Underwriter designations, and is a LIMRA Leadership Institute Fellow.

Outside of work, Dan has had an extensive, ten-year involvement with the Boy Scouts of America. He and his wife, Silva, live in Roseville, Minnesota and have two children, Justin and Andrea. He recently has taken up running/biking and practices Shotokan Karate.

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