Downtown association getting new director
Ninette Ollgaard, who spent the past 11 years at Destination BC in Vancouver, will start on July 4
The Okanagan Saturday
The 1,200-member Downtown Kelowna Association is getting a new executive director, but not for seven weeks.
Ninette Ollgaard, who is finishing up an 11-year career at Destination BC in Vancouver, will start as the new boss in downtown Kelowna on July 4.
Peggy Athans, the previous executive director has moved to Calgary, but is helping with the transition.
Ollgaard is currently director of visitor experiences and industry development at Destination BC.
In that role, she was integral in planning and implementing visitors services for the masses that came to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics and helped develop the program of gateway visitor information centres for international travellers entering B.C.
One of those centres is in Osoyoos, another on the Coquihalla Highway in Merritt.
“We are excited to find someone of the quality of Ninette Ollgaard to build on the outstanding work Peggy Athans did for the past six years,” said Downtown Kelowna Association president Dan Allen of Doc Willoughby’s Pub.
“Ninette is a proven leader, enthusiastic and action-oriented, which is just what we need as downtown Kelowna continues to develop in positive ways. Her understanding of tourism, which underpins our successful downtown, is welcomed by our more than 1,200 members.”
Ollgaard takes over at a time downtown Kelowna has never looked better.
The new Interior Health headquarters and Okanagan Centre for Innovation have just opened on corners at Doyle Avenue and Ellis Street, the new RCMP building is about to be completed, the Downtown Marina has enhanced the waterfront, beach has been restored in City Park and there are proposals for a highrise hotel at Kerry Park and condo towers on Sunset Drive.