SMG, the incoming manager of the Cleveland Convention Center, has picked Mark Leahy to oversee the building and the attached Global Center for Health Innovation.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man who opened Pittsburgh's convention center in 2002 and has since operated the Steel City facility is set to take the helm at Cleveland's new convention complex in the center of downtown.
SMG, the incoming manager of the Cleveland Convention Center, has picked longtime industry executive Mark Leahy to oversee the building and the attached Global Center for Health Innovation. A 55-year-old Boston native, Leahy also has operated convention centers in Boston and Savannah, Ga., and has experience in everything from sales and marketing to setting up and breaking down events.
He has relatives in the eastern suburbs. With their children grown, he and his wife recently started looking at apartments and houses everywhere from downtown Cleveland to Shaker Heights and Rocky River.
And, to break the ice, he wants you to know that he roots for the Patriots.
"People say 'How can you go from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and give up the Steelers?'" Leahy said during a phone conversation Monday. "I never became a Steelers fan."
SMG, a major convention-center operator based in Philadelphia, is scheduled to replace Chicago's Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. next month as manager of Cleveland's million-square-foot complex.
Cuyahoga County Council still needs to sign off on a termination and transfer agreement with MMPI, which developed the taxpayer-financed facility and will hand it over to a new governing entity. That vote might occur in December, but SMG's work could start sooner. Leahy expects to take the general manager title by the third week of November.
"I was living happily ever after in Pittsburgh, and then here I am," he said, adding that he volunteered to move to Cleveland. "This really caught my attention. It caught the attention of our company."
An SMG employee since 1998, Leahy led an effort to create a ferry system between Savannah and its convention center, which sits on an island at the Georgia-South Carolina border.
View full sizeMark Leahy shows off his Boston Red Sox cufflinks, a nod to his hometown during the World Series. Leahy, who is 55, expects to step in as general manager of the new Cleveland Convention Center complex next month. In Pittsburgh, he opened the first new convention center to receive Gold certification through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, a third-party ratings system for green buildings. Since then, the building has achieved Platinum certification - the highest possible level - based on its operations and energy efficiency.
"I think there are a lot of parallels to the game plan that Mark can employ," said Gregg Caren, SMG's senior vice president of strategic business development. "I think there's a lot of what has gone on in Pittsburgh over the past 10 years that Cleveland would like to have."
The Pittsburgh and Savannah centers are publicly owned and privately managed. Leahy also spent a decade working for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority as manager of Boston's older convention center, one of two in that city.
A selection committee composed of Cuyahoga County officials and consultants considered several potential general manager candidates proposed by SMG. Jeff Appelbaum, an attorney representing the county, said Leahy emerged as the obvious choice.
"He has opened convention centers in comparable markets - and not just opened them, but successfully run them," Appelbaum said. "He is familiar with exactly the kinds of issues that we have in the Midwest, everything from hotel connections to union participation in the process. He understands the importance of selling the destination. We see him as really the complete package."
Leahy said the Cleveland facility, which opened in June, debuted rather quietly in an industry where promotion is key. Part of that was the staggered opening schedule of the convention hall and the Global Center, once called the medical mart. The Global Center, a showplace for medical technologies and hub for health care innovation, held a ribbon-cutting this month but won't open to the public until February.
A third piece of the project, a 600- to 650-room attached convention hotel, would not open until 2016 under a plan proposed by county officials. County Council still needs to approve aspects of the hotel plan, under which the county is essentially playing the role of developer. Hilton Worldwide would operate the hotel.
"Cleveland's going to get this major shot in the arm, because these buildings are open and we've got to go out there and market them and sell the hell out of them," said Leahy, adding that he expects to work with hotel operators and Positively Cleveland, the local convention and visitors bureau, to create a "complete destination" and ensure repeat business.
Craig Davis, who leads Pittsburgh's convention bureau, said Leahy is a significant gain for Cleveland, which hasn't had a notable presence on the convention circuit in years.
"Mark's a salesperson and he's also an operator. That's a very tough combination to find," said Davis, the president and chief executive officer of VisitPittsburgh.
"To lose him to a big competitor," Davis added, "it's a big loss."