Donna Valentine, CMP, President

Donna has been working in the meetings and events industry for over 20 years. Her career includes 13 years' experience with Westin/Starwood Hotels and Resorts. As Director of Global Accounts for Starwood, she represented the company's portfolio of properties and gained experience planning client events nation-wide and internationally. She has held director-level positions for several San Francisco-based destination and meeting management firms. In addition, she was national sales manager for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. She founded Excel Meetings & Events in 2001.

Over the course of her career she has planned, produced and managed important meetings and events for corporations and associations including Alza, Aspect Software, Atmos Energy, CMEA Ventures, FT Ventures, Serena Software, Oracle, Peoplesoft, PG&E, Philips Medical Systems, Sega, VISA, and many others.

She holds a degree in Graphic Design with minors in English and Italian from San Jose State University. She earned the CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) in 1990 and recently completed a Certificate in Marketing from UC Berkeley.

Jon Wollenhaupt, Partner & Director of Marketing Programs

Jon has more than 15 years of experience in marketing communications, public relations and brand strategy development. He has held management positions in marketing with enterprise software companies and has worked for marketing and public relations agencies.

At Excel Meetings and Events he is the creative and strategic lead for all company and client marketing programs including collateral development, print ad creative, trade show production and management, lead generation programs, event identity development, web site design and content development, SEO, public relations planning, online marketing and social media campaigns.

Previous to working for Excel Meetings and Events he was Director of Marketing Communications for an enterprise software company and was responsible for partner marketing, strategic communications, lead generation programs, trade show management, collateral and web site content. During this time he managed all activities of a national PR agency including message development, media and analyst tours. He was responsible for all marketing programs related to the launch of a new healthcare division of the company that provides clinical software application and services.

Jon holds a BA in Economics from San Francisco State University and an MBA from Golden Gate University.