Greg Ortale to Head Houston CVB

The Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau has named Greg Ortale president and CEO. Ortale, now president and CEO of Meet Minneapolis, Official Convention + Visitors Assn., will be returning to a city, and a CVB, that he worked in more than 20 years ago.

Effective Dec. 3, Ortale will step into the Houston job, left vacant last December when the previous CEO, Jordy Tollett, resigned. Minneapolis has not yet begun its search to replace Ortale, who has been with that bureau for 20 years.

"Minneapolis is a great product, but Houston is something I really wanted to do," he said. "They didn't think I'd leave, and neither did I, but (GHCVB Chairman) Thomas Jones made a great presentation."

Jones said Ortale is familiar with Houston, having been executive vice president and general manager of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Council in 1984. In 1985, he was elected the first president of the Texas Travel Industry Congress.

Ortale was on a short list of five candidates for the job that, Jones said, was initially offered to Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau. Perry ultimately decided to stay with the New Orleans bureau.

Since Tollett's departure, day-to-day management of the Houston bureau has been in the hands of Donald J. Henderson, GHCVB chairman emeritus, and Doug Horn, previous chairman of the GHCVB board.

"Ortale brings a wealth of knowledge, with over 30 years in the industry," Jones said. "He emerged as one of the more decisive and assertive leaders, and we liked his knowledge of the business and what he did in Minneapolis."

Ortale founded the Minnesota Alliance for Convention Center Expansion, a group of business and community leaders whose influence led to the Minneapolis Convention Center expansion in 2002.