As a Regional Director or Director of Property Design Kent Olson has a diverse hotel background spanning 35 years. Kent comes from a family of Hotel Entrepreneurs and is a second generation Hotelier. He has considerable expertise in administering, opening, from concept to completion, a wide range of luxury and upper mid-scale hotels and resorts as well as repositioning existing hotel products. Kent Olson received his BS degrees in both Business and Hotel / Restaurant Management from the University of Wisconsin – Stout and upon graduation joined the Brock Hotel Corporation and entered its Executive Management Training Program. He has held General Manager Positions at Holiday Inns, Sheratons, Hiltons and a variety of large upscale independent hotels, including the Chicago Landmark Congress Hotel where he was mentored in first class hotel service and property renovation for three years by Claudio D’Angelo of the New York Plaza Hotel. After three exceptionally inspiring years at the Congress Kent was recruited by Harbaugh Hotels to manage the world famous 1200 room Diplomat Resort and Country Club located in Hollywood, Florida. where he, once again, was put in charge of all aspects of the Diplomat’s management and a $35 million dollar renovation. After successfully managing and organizing the process of renovating these properties Kent found that his talents and passionate interest in Hotel and Restaurant Design would take him to the next level in the hospitality industry. Having spent the last 35 years in varying and ever-increasing leadership roles in hotel and resort management, he brings an outstanding industry perspective and expertise to Leisure. Kent was deeply involved and reposnsible for operational management and design of seven projects, approx. $43 million, ranging from the renovation of The Grand Victorian Hotel, Missouri to the conversion of three Staybridge Suite Hotels and construction of the New Chase Resort and Spa in northern MN.