VEP welcomes three new faces to its ranks – Estes Park Trail-Gazette

At their regular monthly meeting on September 23, Visit Estes Park officially announced the hiring of three new employees who will join the team in the coming weeks, including two from former jobs here at Estes Park.

“I am delighted to welcome Mike Zumaugh and Dana Paiement to the VEP team this week and Beth Headley in October,” said Kara Franker, CEO of VEP. “Each of them are talented professionals with a wealth of knowledge and experience in their potential fields.”

Paiement began her role as Director of Sales and Events at VEP on September 20. She worked in events in college before making it her career in 2013 in Virginia. In 2018, she moved to Estes Park and started working at the Ridgeline Hotel, where she was employed until she took the job at VEP.

Paiement is married to a 2 year old son named Brodie. She and her husband are very active and enjoy hiking with the family.

Headley joins the VEP after spending more than five years as the Special Events Coordinator for the Estes Park Events Complex (EPEC).

Originally from Iowa, Beth moved to Estes Park from Santa Barbara in 2014. With a background in philosophy, her professional career has involved event production, teaching, writing / editing, photography and running a successful photo booth business, ”her bio on the EPEC website reads. Camping, road trips in the desert, and exploring the mountains on foot are some of her favorite pastimes, but when the weather is bad, she settles down for yoga, cooking and reading. at the Fireside.”

Towards the end of the meeting, Kevin Benes presented his last financial report as CFO of VEP.

Just as municipal sales tax revenues have skyrocketed this year, revenues for VEP (as a designation marketing organization, they are funded by taxpayer dollars) are reaching record highs.

“We currently have more money on hand than VEP has ever seen,” said Kevin Benes, CFO.

As of July 31 of this year, VEP had $ 1,531,451.71 on hand and $ 307,714.09 in accounts receivable. So far this calendar year, VEP has income of $ 932,611.12. This is well above the amount of income in the same period of previous years ($ 580,977.09 in 2020 and $ 374,981.57 in 2019).

Spending for the month of July has also fluctuated since 2019, when the total for July was $ 345,265.91. That number fell to $ 149,787.20 in the year hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020, before climbing to $ 251,449.74 in July.

Benes will now move on to another role within the organization.

“I evolve in the role of operations agent. VEP has hired a new CFO named Mike Zumbaugh who started this week, ”Benes said.

Zumbaugh had been COO of Chattanooga Tourism Co., where he oversaw the operations of the 25-person, $ 10 million organization. He also started his post on September 20.

In the past, Zumbaugh has held leadership and executive positions at the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Greater Lansing Destination Development Foundation, and the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“I have seen our team excel tremendously since I started working for the organization in May and I know our three new hires will be a huge asset to VEP and the community,” Franker said.

The next monthly VEP meeting is scheduled for October 28 at 2 p.m. Visit https://www.visitestespark.com/transparency/board-meeting-videos-minutes/ for more information on upcoming meetings and how to attend them virtually.