Fred Edson

Fred Edson

Edson is Director of National Accounts with the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa, one of Hilton Hotels top incentive meeting resorts.  The all-inclusive resort is located in Montego Bay Jamaica and Edson handles U.S. group sales from the regional sales office in Charleston, South Carolina.

With over 20 years of hospitality industry experience, he has built a reputation as a reliable resource to his customers, forging long-term partnerships built on trust and performance.  As an incentive meetings expert, he is known for being able find creative solutions and add value to incentive programs and his customer relationships.  In his six years with his company, he has helped create memorable incentive events with Fortune 500 companies, incentive houses and other intermediary parties in the travel industry around the globe.

Prior his appointment to the Board of Directors of Site Southeast USA, Edson served on the Communications Committee for three years, the last two of which he was the Committee Chair.  He also served as webmaster from 2008 through 2010 and managed event registration for events in 2008 and 2009. He is recognized within the chapter for involving people in decisions and energizing volunteers.

Edson Graduated from James Madison University with a degree in Business Science in 1989.  With seven years of hotel and restaurant work already behind him, he began a sales and marketing management career with the Five-Star Homestead in Hot Springs, Va. Over the next 15 years, Edson served in top sales and marketing positions as manager or director at properties including PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL, Kiawah Island Resort, Charleston, SC, The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, FL, Colonial Williamsburg Company, Williamsburg, VA and with Hospitality Consultants, Inc.  His continuing education included The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Institute and countless training and development courses with his hotel companies and through memberships with professional associations such as the Restaurant Management Advisory Council for James Madison University, 10 years with the American, Greater Washington, and Chicago Societies of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International, the Professional Convention Management Association and the Virginia, Ohio and Maryland Societies of Association Executives.  Edson also joined Meeting Planners International and is a current member of Georgia chapter.

Edson is married with two children and is a member and Usher at St. Phillips in Charleston, SC. He is an accomplished architectural historian and his work is scheduled to be featured in Southern Living Magazine in 2012.