Willie Simpson

Willie Simpson has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Willie started their career in 1989 with Marriott International, where they worked in regional revenue management, sales, and operations until 1999. In 1994, they completed a hotel management internship with Kempinski Hotels. From 1999 to 2018, they worked as the Director of Sales and Marketing for the Howard Johnson Hotel and Water Playground at Disneyland under the Northwest Hotel Corp and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. In 2014, they joined Marriott International again as the Opening Sales & Marketing Director for the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park Entrance. Since 2020, Willie has been working at Acme Hospitality, where they started as the Marketing Manager and then progressed to Senior Marketing Manager and currently holds the position of Marketing Director. In this role, they manage brand strategy and marketing activations for multiple award-winning restaurants and tasting rooms in Santa Barbara's Funk Zone.

Willie Simpson has a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business, Marketing, and German from California State University-Long Beach - College of Business. They also have a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in Permaculture and Sustainable Land Use from EarthFlow Design Works - Los Angeles. Willie has studied Holistic Nutrition at Clayton College of Natural Health and was involved in the German American Partnership Program (GAPP) as an exchange student at Gymnasium Eversten. In addition, Willie has obtained certifications in Content Marketing from HubSpot, and Google Ads Search and Google Analytics Individual Qualification from Google.