Dale Venturini

President & CEO
RI Hospitality Association

Award Profile

Courageous Thinking and Action
From a young age Dale Venturini has shown leadership qualities that would
propel her into various career opportunities and eventually landed her in one of
the most well respected roles within Rhode Island’s hospitality industry. As
President/CEO of the RI Hospitality Association for the past 26 years, Dale has
been the voice of the State’s only hospitality trade association which represents
one of Rhode Island’s largest economic generators. Representing such a vibrant
industry can not only be extremely rewarding, but also very demanding. Her
courage and leadership has grown the RI Hospitality Association membership
from a handful of local business owners to a powerhouse group of over 675
hospitality companies. During her tenure she successfully lead various
legislative campaigns affecting the food service and lodging industry including
Save Our State, 10% is Too Much, and Save Tipping RI.

Vision and Innovation
You cannot be a successful leader without the ability to be a change agent. Dale
Venturini believes in constant movement and growth because without it you
become stale and ineffective. Leading such a large not-for-profit business
association requires her to have vision in all aspects of association management,
from membership investments to professional development to board
governance and volunteer collaboration. Dale seeks to engage our industry
volunteers through a variety of innovative experiences in an effort to help them
become better leaders. Several years ago she developed the Association’s Culture
of Community that is characterized by four C’s: Cooperation – Working together
to benefit the industry; Collaboration – Encouraging teamwork, support and
community partnerships; Communication – Exchanging ideas, information, and
opportunities; Connection – Creating relationships within the industry.

Inspiring Leadership
Dale is a firm believer that when you climb your career ladder, your first move
should be to turn around and help pull someone up behind you. She has shared
this belief for many years and continues to encourage others to do the same. In an
effort to celebrate the strength of professional women working within the
hospitality industry, Dale led the charge of creating the Women in Hospitality
Council. Th is Council provides the opportunity for women of all ages, job titles,
and career levels to network, mentor, and learn from each other in a supportive
environment.

Community Mindedness
Dale volunteers her time to support many organizations and serves on various
local and national boards including the RI Business Coalition, RI Commodores,
RI Convention Center Authority, Council of State Restaurant Associations, Th e
Miriam Hospital Foundation Board of Governors, Providence Warwick
Convention & Visitors Bureau, and National Restaurant Association Educational
Foundation. Dale’s support of community and philanthropy is contagious. She
helped to established the RI Hospitality Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3)
non-profit that promotes career advancement and training opportunities. In 2014
alone, over 1,000 individuals have received certification training in food safety,
hotel operations, customer service, teamwork, and conflict management from the
Hospitality Training Academy under her leadership of the RI Hospitality
Education Foundation.

JA Mission Moment
I am fortunate that my career, my passion, has allowed me the opportunity to
engage with numerous young people and student groups for nearly three decades.
Th e demographics of these students have varied across all generations,
education levels, and economic backgrounds. Recently, I had the opportunity to
meet students from the Paul Cuffee School during a JA Job Shadow experience at
the Providence Marriott Hotel. I was completely impressed by the level of
attention, interest, and respect the students showed me. These young people were
an impressive group of future leaders and I could feel their passion for wanting to
be successful. For some reason, I felt very comfortable sharing my personal life
story with the students. It was a great experience for me to volunteer my time, my
passion and in doing so, the experience fed my soul.