Umstead Hotel and Spa Management Change
Umstead Hotel & Spa to replace GM, sales managerTriangle Business Journal
CARY – The Goodnight family, owners of the luxury Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary, have dismissed three members of the hotel’s management staff based on what was considered “underperformance on the owner’s vision.”
Leah Goodnight, daughter of SAS co-founder Jim Goodnight and his wife, Ann Goodnight, has been named acting general manager. She has taken over the role from former Managing Director Bob Schofield, who had been with the hotel’s management team since before construction began in 2006. The hotel and spa opened in January 2007.
“Operationally, the hotel is running fine and profitable,” Leah Goodnight wrote in a statement to Triangle Business Journal. “The upper management change was based solely on the vision and expectation ownership had set forth for internal procedures, and our concern about employee turnover.”
Other management members who were dismissed around Oct. 24 include Richard Brooks, director of sales and marketing, and Bridget Nelson, director of human resources. The hotel also has an ongoing search for a new food and beverage director following Nick Pijerov’s departure in September.
