SAN FRANCISCO
The San Francisco Business Times has named Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, and Gary Bauer of Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation to the publication’s prestigious list of Most Admired CEOs.
D’Alessandro and Bauer were selected in the categories of Nonprofit, Small and Private Company, 100-500 Employees respectively.
Of D’Alessandro, Business Times reporter Renee Frojo wrote, “As president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, D’Alessandro has singlehandedly transformed how San Francisco sells itself to the rest of the world. His good work shows.
“Since he took the reins in 2006, the organization has more than doubled its budget from $12 million to $27.9 million, grown its staff from 70 to nearly 100 employees and opened new offices in New York, China and Brazil.
“Now in his seventh year at the organization, D’Alessandro has presided over tourism in the city as it reached a high point, with an estimated 16.5 million travelers visiting San Francisco last year. Visitor spending has grown to $8.9 billion while hotel room rates are hitting their highest levels ever as occupancy tops 80 percent.”
“He also encouraged more socially progressive campaigns and made an effort to market more of the city’s neighborhoods beyond the better known tourist attractions such as Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown.
“Perhaps his biggest game-changing idea was the introduction of the Tourism Improvement District, which collects (an assessment) to fund the association and a number of city projects. The establishment of the district not only secured the association’s future, it also led it to grow beyond merely a sales and marketing organization to more of a policy advocacy group.”
Gary Bauer, who serves as Vice Chair of the San Francisco Travel Board of Directors and chairs the organization’s Community Engagement Council, was described by Business Times contributor David Mills as a self-made success and leader. “For Gary Bauer, a business career started in 1988 with his purchase of a Cadillac for a few thousand dollars,” he wrote.
“Over the past three decades, that first vehicle has grown into a fleet. Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation is now a limousine and shuttle service with more than 150 luxury vehicles that serves thousands of customers a day and employs more than 400 people.
“In the past three years, the company’s revenue has risen from $16 million annually to $27 million.”
“Today’s most successful companies are led by CEOs with strong values, clear vision and integrity. They are innovators, risk takers and change agents. In our region, we find that they also have plenty of heart, and tend to invest their talent and passion in our community at large,” wrote San Francisco Business Times Publisher Mary Huss.
The San Francisco Travel Association is a private, not-for-profit organization that markets the city as a leisure, convention and business travel destination. With more than 1,500 partner businesses, San Francisco Travel is one of the largest membership-based tourism promotion agencies in the country.
