Introducing…Mark Wang
Every two years, we have the unique
opportunity to welcome a new ARDA chair, a leader with fresh perspective and
guidance to the strategic direction of the Association and the core nature of
our work.
Change brings so many components to
it: expectation, excitement, a sense of adventure, questions and perhaps
uncertainty. Developments Magazine sat
down with our new ARDA Chair, Mark Wang, president & CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations,
to get a sense of his vision and plans for these next two years. Here are some of the key things discussed
during that sit down:
Mark has been an entrepreneur from
a young age, building companies and developing teams with this inspiring sense
of the possible. He spent 26 years in
Hawaii selling vacations, stating, “I started several companies and helped struggling
resorts succeed. I learned all aspects of this business—sales and marketing, management,
finance and operations.”
He’s used these lessons from his
past to rise to his current role where he leads over 8,000 exceptional team
members for a company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
As for what his top priorities are as
Chairman, Mark says:
“There are three top objectives I
want to focus on, especially in the first year. First and foremost, continue to
support advocacy as the number-one core strength of ARDA. I’ve been involved
with ARDA for almost 35 years, and at the state level in Hawaii I saw how
strong ARDA could be, protecting both developers and owners. As a second priority,
I see great opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region, so I want to explore how
to bring best practices and perhaps our AIF research tools to strengthen that
region for growth. And my final priority would be to address exit programs and
public perception, which are often inter-connected. First, we should consider owners
who enjoyed the product for many years but now have a need for a soft landing.
We can also enhance the overall image of timeshare, which is currently being
tarnished by the tremendous activity targeting owners to ‘get out of their
timeshare.’ We know owners love our product, and we need to protect our owners
and our industry’s reputation.”
Overall, Mark adds, he is grateful
to Howard Nusbaum and the entire team at ARDA for this opportunity to
collaborate on the goals and objectives outlined in ARDA’s Strategic Plan.
Here’s to ARDA’s new Chair and the success
of our industry—the best is yet to come!
To learn more about Mark, read his
full sit down in this month’s issue of Developments.