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Key Staff
Prestige Accommodations has a full-time staff of 12 persons, augmented by a number of part-time persons. These part-time persons have worked for us often and as such, know all the nuances of how we operate. The team approach embodied by Prestige Accommodations allows you to always have a point-of-contact meeting planner who understands your program at all times. In addition, numerous other members of the staff, both meeting planners, assistant meeting planners and clerical staff, are involved with the planning, design, implementation and management of all aspects of your meeting.
Prestige Accommodations is extremely proud of its staff and the quality of the work that we produce. While each of us has our own unique skill level, all of us work cohesively and collectively to provide outstanding logistics enabling the most successful meetings for each of our clients. The following is a brief synopsis of a few of the key members of our staff.
Steven Marlin
President and Owner
Steve has often been recognized as a leader in the field and has been asked to speak at numerous meeting planning association gatherings, has taught food and beverage at the ASAE Management Conference and served on the advisory boards for Centerplate, a national provider of food and beverage services to convention centers and sports facilities nationwide. The hospitality industry recognizes Steve as a tough, but fair representative of his clients and one who brings to the negotiating table a great deal of knowledge and understanding of the hotel industry, as well as the needs of his clients.
Barbara L. Klemm
Senior Meeting Planner
Barbara has been with Prestige Accommodations for over twenty years where she has been responsible for negotiating contracts with hotels and vendors, coordinating logistical arrangements and on-site supervision of clients' annual conferences. Barb works with clients in planning and budgeting, as well as committees and volunteers in all stages of conference arrangements. She currently works with clients whose conferences range from 350 to 9,000 attendees. Prior to joining Prestige, Barbara headed a five-person conference department with an association in the Midwest for 16 years, overseeing 19 annual meetings ranging from 35 to 2,400 attendees.
Laurie Ybarra
Senior Meeting Planner
Laurie has over twenty years of meeting planning experience handling a wide variety of conventions and events for both corporate and association clients. Laurie started her meeting planning career with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. For twelve years, she handled their 6,500 person annual convention, as well as additional specialty conferences. From there, she went to an independent meeting planning company for six years, managing all aspects of meeting planning for various clients with meetings ranging from 40-2,000 people. This gave Laurie experience working with corporate groups and incentives as well as associations. Laurie started with Prestige in 2004 and plans meetings for both corporate and association clients. Her conventions range in size from 1,000 to 4,500 people. Laurie obtained her AA Degree at Pasadena City College and completed the Meeting Planners Certificate Program at California State University, Long Beach in 1992.
Kathleen Haroldson
Meeting Planner
Kathleen has worked with Prestige for the past 10 years. Her specialty is pharmaceutical meetings. When not on projects for Prestige, she devotes her time to the pharmaceutical meetings discipline. She is an outstanding planner with over 20 years’ experience.
Michelle Sais
Meeting Planner
Michelle has over 16 years’ experience in association and corporate meeting planning and incentive travel programs. She started with Prestige in 2004 and her meetings range in size from 200-1,500 people. Michelle brings a keen understanding of attendees’ needs, superb organizational skills, and an eye for detail to each of her programs. Her specialties include teambuilding/corporate social responsibility (CSR) events, budgets and social media/apps. Michelle received her Professional Meeting Planning certification in 2000 from Cal State Fullerton and is a member of Meeting Planners International.
Jenny Carson
Meeting Coordinator
Jenny has been with Prestige Accommodations for two years as the Meeting Coordinator. Her background includes various positions in the hospitality industry. She worked as a Conference Services Manager at San Diego State University; Sales Assistant at the Four Seasons Newport Beach; Catering Manager at the Westin Innisbrook in Tampa, FL; and as a Meeting Planner for R&R Healthcare Communications. Her previous experience in the industry has provided a solid foundation for her position at Prestige where she plans various smaller scale meetings and provides support to the senior planners on the larger meetings.
Kimberly Harrigan
Registration Manager
Kimberly came to Prestige in 2010. With over 8 years in the hospitality industry, she developed exceptional customer service skills and the ability to calmly and professionally handle all types of unique situations. Now as the Registration Manager, she puts all her skills to work as she manages the registration (both online and on-site) portion of the meetings. From the planning stage to the final wrap-up, Kimberly is involved in every detail to ensure that attendees receive the attention they need to get the most benefit from the meetings they attend.