bill grusich is co-founder and president of hinton+grusich.

bill began his career in 1973 as concierge at the fairmont hotel in new orleans. he later became convention coordinator there, before moving to new york to become regional sales manager. in 1977, bill relocated yet again, to the fairmont san francisco, to work as sales manager. he came to chicago in 1979 as regional director of sales for fairmont hotels, and was appointed to head the pre-opening sales team for the new fairmont hotel chicago in 1985. he and dave hinton launched hinton+grusich into business in may 1986.

bill primarily works the association market, mainly through association management companies. his sales territory includes - but is not confined to - illinois, ohio and wisconsin.

throughout his career, bill has been very active in a number of industry organizations, at the local and national levels. since coming to chicago, he has been a member of the chicago society of association executives (association forum). he served on their board of directors and in 1984 was the recipient of their first annual associate member of the year award. in 2008 he served as chair for the 2008 holiday showcase for their 20th anniversary.

the american medical association named him their salesman of the year the same year. he was named supplier of the year (1989-90) by chicago area meeting planners international (campi), and in 1992 received the associate member of the year award from the institute of association management companies (iamc). the greater midwest chapter of pcma bestowed the prestigious richard a. daignault award upon bill in 1997. he also won the iaamc award of distinguished service.

he has been a member of both mpi and campi (now mpi-cac) since 1979, and was president of the chicago chapter when it was given the chapter of the year award for 1987-88. he has served two terms on the mpi international board of directors: 1979-81 and 1989-92. bill was also the recipient of the mpi's individual hall of fame award in 2003. he belongs to the midwest chapter of the national association of exposition managers, and continues to serve on a number of industry committees.

bill's involvement in asae lead to his recent recognition as an asae fellow in 2008. he is also chairman of the industry partners alliance for 2008-2009.

in august 1992, bill earned his certified meeting planner designation. he regularly speaks to groups of students studying the hospitality industry at roosevelt university in chicago.

bill earned a bachelor of science degree in business management from mcneese state university in lake charles, louisiana where he also played football, and resides in evanston, il with his wife, lois. His daughter kate lives in Atlanta and does media/public relations for an association management firm, and his son tony is a naval officer currently based in japan.

only a few inches above bill grusich, is our tallest hinton+grusich team member.
andré's sales territory includes the states of missouri and kansas, as well as the chicagoland area. he covers a multitude of clients within the association, corporate and incentive markets. after successfully soliciting the kansas and missouri market, he designed and developed "rendezvous", the h+g annual tradeshow reception. now approaching its 8th year in st. louis and kanas city and due to its popularity, h+g added for the past few years minneapolis as a destination as well. the law day industry tradeshow that andré conceptualized several years ago, too has turned into another signature event for him and h+g and continues to grow in popularity.

andré's career in the hospitality industry began in 1984 in germany, where he completed his mandatory military training in the food and beverage division of the german armed forces. following the required two-year apprenticeship, he attended the hotel management school in münster, germany, and completed his practical training at an 18th century castle hotel. he then moved to frankfurt to work at the kempinski hotel gravenbruch, where he acquired extensive experience in operations. in the summer of 1987, he moved to london to become senior front office executive at the mayfair hotel intercontinental. after about a year, kempinski hotels lured him back to join the operations team at the grand kempinski dallas (now the hotel intercontinental dallas) as front desk supervisor. shortly thereafter, he made the move into sales and steadily worked his way up to become associate director of sales. during his seven years in dallas, andré developed a strong admiration for chicago (and the entire midwest) and moved to his favorite city in 1995. andré represented the los angeles convention + visitors bureau in their midwest office before joining the hinton+grusich sales team in august 1996. he just passed a milestone by celebrating his 20th year in the usa.

andré has the european equivalent of an mba in hotel management and is very proud to be the first german ever to receive the cmp designation, which he earned in july 1995.

he maintains an active membership in pcma and mpi. andré served on mpi's chicago area chapter board of directors from june 1999 through may 2000 and for several years, he served as the vice-chair of their cmp study group. after chairing a successful 2002 awards gala, he was active on the coty + mentor programs and is currently serving on mpi-cac's leadership + awards selection committees.

after living in chicago for a long time, he's been a proud home owner in evanston. he still enjoys biking or rollerblading when not mowing the grass or taking care of his yard. when in town (he loves to travel domestically and internationally, especially to visit his entire family in germany) you can find him at the beach, or someone's boat, going shopping or cooking up a meal for his friends he likes to entertain. long before ‘mamma mia' became popular in this country, he was (and still is) an avid abba fan (along with pet shop boys - yes, they are still around...) and continues to treasure these 70-ies + 80-ies bands along with much other music (as noticeable by his 1300+ cd collection)

in january 2008, karen joined the h+g team as director of industry partner sales in the chicago office. she heads up a new company-wide initiative that focuses on selling the services of our "partners+ collection" which includes destination management, catering, off-site dining, event production, air travel, car rental, cruise lines and professional imagining services.

while in school karen worked as a special projects coordinator for the ohio university office of public occasions. she spent the summer of her junior year working at exclamation points! a dmc based in jacksonville, florida. after graduating from ohio university with a degree in organizational communication and business, karen relocated to michigan to begin her career.

prior to joining h+g, karen worked as a program manager and an account planner at landmark incentive marketing. her first job out of college was as a project manager for maritz travel company in michigan working on the ford motor company account. she was in michigan for two years before moving to chicago to be with adam, her [now] husband in 2005.

karen is very involved in the chicago area chapter of meeting professionals international. in 2007 she founded the student affairs committee, and her efforts resulted in the receipt of the mpi-cac tomorrow's leader award. in 2008 the student affairs committee was award the chicago area chapter committee of the year award. most recently karen has been nominated to serve on the local board of directors and will take on the role of director of leadership beginning in july 2010. in addition to her work within the local chapter karen has served on the international student-faculty advisory council and the community membership advisory council. karen recently joined the legal marketing association and is a volunteer on the special projects committee for the midwest chapter.

karen is a dale carnegie training alumni completing the dale carnegie sales advantage in 2009 where she was awarded the ‘human relations award’ by her classmates. karen is on track to receive her certificate of achievement for the dale carnegie program: effective communication + human relations in march 2010.

karen and adam were married in july 2007 at copper mountain ski resort in colorado. they live in chicago's bucktown neighborhood with their pug dog, jax (named for the summer spent in jacksonville). karen is an avid skier and fan of the denver broncos.

nancy kicked off 2010 in a celebratory manner by joining the team at hinton+grusich. as director of northeast national sales, she will cover the northeast states right down through mid-atlantic (in conjunction with colleague mike). she will also handle the pharmaceutical market east of the mississippi.

as a native of upstate ny, she spent several of her career years in parts of the northeast yet also lived in texas for a long duration. her vast years in the hotel industry include iconic places such as grossingers resort & country club (formerly in the catskill mountains, home of 'dirty dancing'), several corporate sheraton hotels (houston, dallas and hartford), the spa at norwich inn, foxwoods casino, and mohegan sun (an h+g partner). prior to joining h+g, she was with wyndham hotel group starting with their st. thomas resort and lastly promoted to role as global account director.

she received her cmp designation in 2002. she enjoys the camaraderie of cmp and participates regularly in the cmp conclaves. she is also involved with several mpi chapters including westfield, new england, ct river valley, greater ny - and more. in her vast market, you will find her busy with other industry events such as pcma, ficp, asae - and more! she has received recognition for her customer care, lastly as a hospitality hero with wyndham in 2009.

in her spare time, nancy enjoys hiking, skiing, boating, beaching, long walks, games, riding harleys, campfires, dancing, and anything new and adventurous. she and her family enjoy their camp in vermont and she further stays busy with her church and as a board director of her community association. keeping active in the hospitality industry, traveling with family and friends, and extending the most sincere of service and care is what nancy believes to be key to her success.

kevin oversees the company's day-to-day operations, partner relationships, and strategic growth. his areas of responsibility include marketing and client events, information technology, finance and accounting, human resources and new business development. kevin is also the primary liaison to our 4 regional sales offices. kevin is also the second son of dave hinton, one of the firm's founders who retired in 2003.

kevin's career in the hotel business began with hilton hotels in february 1997 as assistant manager at the chicago hilton and towers after six months, he moved into the front office as one of three assistant directors. in september 1998, kevin was named towers manager, responsible for operations of the 142 concierge-level rooms, and a staff of twelve. during his tenure in this position, kevin assembled a strong team, and made improvements to the services and amenities available to "towers guests." before leaving the hilton in 1999, kevin laid the groundwork for renovations to the guestrooms and lounge scheduled to take place later in the year.

kevin is currently serving a 3-year term on mpi's (meeting professionals international) international board of directors (ibod). he was mpi chicago area chapter's president in 2006-2007, while serving on the chapter's board of directors from 2004 to 2008. in june 2003, kevin received mpi-cac's "rising star" award.

prior to entering the hotel business, kevin was a peace corps volunteer, having served two years in the west african nation of mali. he studied finance and german at marquette university in milwaukee, wi before that. in march 2005, kevin was graduated from the university of chicago's executive mba program. in his spare time, kevin is an avid skier, runner, loves to read, and listens to a wide array of music. he lives in chicago's old town neighborhood with his wife claudia and their daughters amber and sophia.

kathy has been vice president of sales since joining hinton+grusich in october of 1996. kathy works with a variety of associations and corporations in the financial and insurance industry, as well as incentive travel and multi-management companies. the majority of her customers are in illinois and ohio.

kathy started working in the hotel industry while studying at western michigan university (in her hometown) of kalamazoo, mi at the hilton inn. she was sales manager there, before being promoted to associate director of sales at the hilton inn in lansing, mi. kathy then took the position of national sales manager for the holiday star resort in merrillville, where in 1986, she was named sales manager of the year. she finally came to chicago in 1987 as national account manager for wyndham hotels and resorts and thereafter was promoted to director of national sales. while with wyndham, she earned distinction in 1998 as sales manager of the year and national sales director of the year in 1992.

she has been involved in every major industry organization, and has chaired or served on committees for asae, pcma, mpi, the association forum and milo, among others. she has served on the board of directors for the greater midwest chapter of pcma (gmc - pcma) and since 1995, she has worked on pcma's membership committee. kathy still volunteers on the pcma program committee and mpi cac holiday party.

in 1993, csae designated kathy their supplier of the year as did the chicago chapter of mpi (mpi-cac) the following year. the american medical association presented her with their supplier of the year award in 1997. in 2000, kathy received the prestigious richard a. daignault award from the midwest chapter of pcma. she was honored with the kathy osterman industry award from mpi in 2003.

she is an active member of ficp and has served on the design team of ficp for the greater midwest chapter and the great lakes chapters.

kathy comes from a large close-knit family and enjoys spending time with them as well as her friends.  In addition she enjoys golfing, skiing, traveling the world, shopping and reading in her spare time.  kathy volunteers for the special olympics, and enjoys reaching out to people who might be searching for their niche in the hospitality industry.

mike joins hinton+grusich as regional sales manager of the southeast market, covering florida, georgia, the carolinas, and washington dc.

having begun his diverse 20-year sales career representing perry ellis in the apparel manufacturing industry, michael subsequently moved into the hotel industry more than seven years ago.

over these years, michael's experience has taught him the value of building long-lasting relationships, and he has sharpened his sales skills working with meeting planners across the us. early in his hotel sales career, michael helped interstate hotels & resorts re-position two of their phoenix-area hotels. he furthered his experience in senior sales management roles at the daufuskie island resort and spa in south carolina and the hilton sedona resort and spa in sedona, az. most recently, michael served as the associate director of sales at the innisbrook resort and golf club in tampa, fl and the wyndham peachtree conference center in atlanta, ga respectively.

a graduate of the university of florida, michael has two sons, justin and ryan. he is an avid golfer, and a fan of college football.

terri joined hinton+grusich in the fall of 2004 opening the west coast office as the director of west coast national sales servicing the california, washington, and oregon markets. developing and growing the market by introducing planners to h+g with a friendly style, positive attitude, and a passion for the industry that is infectious. her clients say the value that terri's 25 years of hospitality experience and expertise delivers her clients along with her consultive approach makes her a resource they can count on. terri's industry and product knowledge along with her honesty creates a long-lasting relationship that they can trust. terri is always on top of her client's needs dedicated to providing the highest level of service through communication, follow-up, and working hard to advocate for her clients.

terri began her career in chicago working for marriott when she was just 15 years old. terri studied hotel, restaurant management in the college of business at michigan state university and culinary at hotel ecolier in lausanne, switzerland graduating in 1988. upon graduation, she was a restaurant manager at walt disney world, then director of catering + conference services at the prestigious landings club on skidaway island in savannah, ga, and then director of catering + conference services for destinations hotels + resorts (dh+r) at their o'hare property. terri then moved to the westin on north michigan avenue in chicago and became a sales manager. terri moved to colorado in 1995 working 6 years at keystone resort servicing the west coast as associate director of sales and then returned to dh+r working 4 years at the inverness hotel + conference center in southeast denver.

terri earned her cmp designation in 1997 while teaching cmp classes to fellow industry colleagues. terri is an active member of mpi with (7) mpi chapters throughout the west region serving on three committees and is also active with nocal site and socal site serving on two committees.

terri is married with two daughters and as a family they love to ski, bike, travel, and take in all the kids activites.