The 2013 Women of Influence are Kim Stone, EVP and GM, AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami; Maureen Ginty, EVP Marketing Services and Human Resources, SMG; Adina Erwin, VP and GM, The Fox Theatre, Atlanta
REPORTING FROM NEW ORLEANS — Three outstanding women executives regaled the crowd with sincere thanks and shared experiences as they were officially toasted as Venues Today Women of Influence July 28 during the International Association of Venue Managers convention here.
Representing performing arts, arenas and private management, they come from diverse backgrounds yet share an industry history and willingness to mentor others that inspired the crowd.
Kim Stone, EVP and GM, AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, thanked peers and family for their support and constant willingness to help, saying she has received more calls about her WOI award than the three times her Miami Heat won the National Basketball Association championship.
Maureen Ginty, EVP Marketing Services and Human Resources, SMG, also thanked her executive team for their support. Ginty created the company’s SMG’s proprietary professional education system k’nekt which focuses on customer training and sales and is utilized by nearly every employee at SMG.
Rounding out the group was Adina Erwin, VP and GM, The Fox Theatre, Atlanta, who quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes in her acceptance speech saying, “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it — but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
Erwin explained that she liked the quote because it defines greatness “not as a destination, but as a journey. And all the women who have received this award today, as well as previously and the ones in the future are all great” because they recognize the patience required to achieve success.
“These women are also resilient and they stay relevant and that passion is extremely important in this industry,” she said. “It’s an ever-changing industry and we have to stay on top of things and these women represent the ability to absorb change and remain constant in who they are and what they believe.”
Erwin thanked her mentors Sporty Jeralds with the University of South Carolina who worked with Erwin at the Charlotte (N.C.) Coliseum, as well as Robin Timothy from the SMG-managed Jacksonville (Fla.) Veterans Memorial Arena “who showed me how to lead like a woman” and who gave Erwin “permission and even empowered” her to ask questions and admit that she doesn’t know everything. Thanks also went to Brad Mayne at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. who worked with Erwin at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Jane Kleinberger from Paciolan, Venues Today’s Publisher Linda Deckard and Erwin's husband and family.
She also took a moment to thank her colleagues at the Fox Theatre, “noting while we are about revenue generation, we’re also there to ensure that the community we live in is strong because we are only as strong as the community we serve. We do mission-driven work at the Fox and it’s a full 360-existence for us."
When Stone took to the stage, she recalled the trauma of her first NBA championship parade just a few months after becoming GM of AmericanAirlines Arena, including the moment she had to push a woman out of the way, hand in face, to slam the door to the arena closed. She describes it as a “peaceful riot” and remembers wondering what she had gotten herself into.
A month later, she attended an IAVM conference for the first time and went to a session on the horrific effects of Hurricane Katrina. Doug Thornton had a picture up showing the high water mark at the Superdome and showed how he was not an inch away from complete and utter disaster. “Being in South Florida, another area hit by hurricanes a lot, I walked out of that and thought what in the world have I gotten myself into?” Stone said of the venue management business.
Six years later, she declares it “the most rewarding, fulfilling and exciting industry to be in as a professional. I’ve had the great opportunity of working with people that are the most caring, compassionate and kind people there are. That’s what gets me up every day to get through these crazy moments.”
Thanking the leaders and staff at AmericanAirlines Arena and The Heat Group, her family that puts up with the weekends and holiday hours, and the vendors who serve AmericanAirlines Arena, Stone also singled out the Florida Facility Management Association, of which she is president this year. “When I was a newbie to the business, they welcomed me with open arms and always answered my emails and phone calls asking what is this, how do you handle that? What do you do about a nightclub in your building? It’s been fantastic.”
Thanks and gratitude was a theme that ran throughout all the acceptance speeches. When Ginty took to the stage, she said, “They say that success has many fathers, and I think it has many fathers and mothers. In my case, the opportunities at SMG in the 22 years I’ve been there are really attributable to (SMG President and CEO) Wes Wesley, whose vision has represented tremendous growth and tremendous opportunity for all of us who believed in it.”
She also thanked her staff who “I can give responsibility to so that I can do other things like development programs, and respond to RFPs and other things that have helped drive our company,” she said. “And I want to thank my coworkers and fabulous management staff — John Bolton (with the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.) and Doug Thornton (with the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans) because they have a vision about how we treat our employees and the company we want to be.”