Houston CVB CEO Is Asked to Reapply for His Own Job

Gerard J. "Jordy" Tollett's contract as president and CEO of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau may be up Feb. 1, but the group's executive board is already looking for a replacement — and, to complicate things further, has asked Tollett to submit an application.

The board on Nov. 17 said it would enlist a national executive search firm to find qualified candidates for the post. A search committee, chaired by Greater Houston Partnership CEO Jeff Moseley, was scheduled to form in late November, and the selected firm is expected to submit candidates within two to three months.

According to GHCVB Chairman Doug Horn, the search responds to Houston Mayor Bill White's request "to make sure that we have the right person for the job," he said, adding of the mayor, "He just wants to look around and make sure we've got the right guy there. He's focusing on all the (city) departments, making sure he's got the right people in."

The bureau's current annual budget is more than $11 million, Horn said.

The mayor's request is "totally apart and separate" from a local controversy this summer, added Horn, when "Mr. Tollett was caught on film by a local television station having a relatively long lunch." (According to a recent Houston Chronicle story, a local TV station filmed Tollett drinking in a bar during lunch.)

Following the incident, Tollett, who has been in the bureau's top spot since 1997, took a six-week leave of absence beginning in mid-July.

Horn said the executive search was "something that the mayor has been suggesting for sometime." However, he added, the controversy "may have exacerbated" the need for it.

Nevertheless, Horn is in Tollett's corner. According to the bureau, he voiced his confidence in the GHCVB staff and hopes Tollett will reapply for the position, in order to be given proper consideration.

He also said things have been "outstanding" at the bureau since Tollett returned from his leave.

Tollett was not available for comment. While it is unknown whether he will reapply for the job, it's crystal clear that the bureau's No. 2, Wayne Chappell, won't.

"I don't want to be a candidate," Chappell, the bureau's executive vice president for citywide sales and business development, told Tradeshow Week.

With nearly a quarter century of experience as a bureau president (more than 17 years at the Baltimore bureau; just over seven years in Kansas City, Mo.), Chappell said, "25 (years) was enough of catching political spears."

Tollett, a Houstonian, was director of the city's convention and entertainment facilities department for more than 20 years, and worked for several mayors (including a stint as former Mayor Lee Brown's chief of staff).

He was an active participant in the construction of the George R. Brown Convention Center, Hilton Americas-Houston Convention Center hotel, Reliant Center and Reliant Stadium, and the convention center expansion, according to the bureau.