KIM LEAVITT PALMIERI
DIRECTOR OF FOOD ADMIN & MARKETING
RAY CAMMACK SHOWS
HOMETOWN: Phoenix, which is still home-base.
UNIVERSITY: Undergrad at Arizona State University in Tempe, with a master’s degree in Marketing from University of Phoenix.
FIRST INDUSTRY JOB: I started in the ticket boxes selling tickets. I can’t even remember how old I was; I probably started whenever I could count to 10.
FAVORITE FAIR FOOD: A caramel apple with nuts. You can only have so much fried food.
MENTORS: I’m really inspired by my parents, Guy and Charlene Leavitt who own Ray Cammack Shows, for their commitment to the industry, as well as owning a family business and making it work.
PET PEEVE: It really bothers me when I see dirty windows at food stands.
SPORTS FAN: We root for our hometown teams, but really I’m a fan of my kids’ teams. My husband Dominic Palmieri (pictured) and I have four kids, age 7-14, with the boys in baseball and football and the girls in dance.
BEST ADVICE: Just the golden rule: treat everyone as you would want to be treated, whether they’re an executive or employee.
GUILTY PLEASURE: Chocolate is an indulgence.
(602) 237-3333
LISA COCHRAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
TACO BELL ARENA AT BOISE (IDAHO) STATE
UNIVERSITY
HOMETOWN: Bellevue, Wash.
UNIVERSITY: Undergrad at University of Washington and Seattle Pacific Univ., graduate school at BSU.
FIRST JOB IN THE INDUSTRY: It was actually here at Boise State when the building was still called The Pavilion. I moved back to Seattle after I graduated but followed a guy back to Boise State and fortunately there was a job open. I kept the job, but not the guy.
FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB: It would definitely be leading the team. We have a fantastic staff.
MENTORS: Stacy Pearson, VP for Finance and Administration at Boise State University. She has seen change from different administrations and continues to be such a strong leader. She’s helped me learn how to adapt to changing environments and stress, always valuing your people even more than processes and procedures. Also, Knitting Factory Presents President Chris Moore has been a great mentor for me as far as helping to understand the landscape of the industry from another side.
SURPRISE FACT: I have a twin brother. All I have
to do is look at him and I know what he’s thinking.
WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY: I think being a woman can help your career. We’re all competitive, but I think that a female can naturally have a nature that listens and is willing to take a role of bringing people together as opposed to having to drive everything. It helps in creating a team environment and during negotiations where I don’t have to always be attacking, I can use collaborative discussions to get things done.
(208) 426-1900
JILL PEPPER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
TEAM COALITION (Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management)
HOMETOWN: Denver
UNIVERSITY: I did my undergrad at Stanford (Calif.) University and have an MBA from MIT in Cambridge, Mass.
HOW YOU GOT YOUR JOB: I was actually bartending and a coworker was a friend of one of the board of directors from TEAM Coalition. Had I not been bartending, I would not have been led to the organization.
MENTORS: In both my career and personal life it would have to be Linda Pantell, who has worked for Major League Baseball for many years.
FREE TIME ACTIVITIES: I really enjoy cooking and going out to dinner. I definitely love Italian food and actually studied abroad in Italy in my junior year of college and fell in love with it. Pasta is also easy as a vegetarian, which I’ve been since 1994. To be quite honest, I became vegetarian after a bad taco at a happy hour, so it was a health-related decision.
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Given what I do for a living I shouldn’t say who my favorites are, but I am from Denver and I do love football, so I’ll leave it at that.
SURPRISE FACT: I have a tattoo. I won’t elaborate on where.
GUILTY PLEASURE: A Starbucks Frappuccino daily — That’s not a might have, it’s a must have. A coffee Frappuccino light with one pump of peppermint syrup.
THE STATE OF WOMEN IN THE INDUSTRY: To some degree it actually helps being a woman. When you attend a security conference for facility managers there are not a lot of women in the room, so it’s easy to be remembered.
(703) 647-7430
