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Executive Profile , Ed Netzhammer

Throughout his 20 years in the hospitality industry, Ed Netzhammer has moved 17 times, lived in seven states and had seven different job titles.

He has been a general manager five times and added regional vice president to the list during his last move when he came to San Diego to open the 511-room Omni San Diego Hotel in April 2004. But last summer he found himself in a situation he’d never been in before, and one he hopes will never be repeated.

In addition to overseeing the operations and management of the Omni in Downtown, he oversees a region that includes four other Omni hotels, one each in San Francisco and Los Angeles and two in New Orleans.

He was in San Diego when the levees in New Orleans overflowed on Aug. 29 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and became the Dallas-based company’s communication link for its two New Orleans hotels , the 350-room Omni Royal Orleans and the 100-room Omni Royal Crescent.

The storm forced the closure of the Royal Crescent and it has yet to reopen. But he was responsible for getting power generators, food, supplies and clothing shipped to the Royal Orleans, which remained open in the relatively undamaged French Quarter. He also arranged for the property to serve as a temporary headquarters for about 150 members of the New Orleans Police Department’s 8th District , the division that patrols the French Quarter , since its offices were damaged in the storm.

Netzhammer is also a New Orleans native, and for a short time before and during the storm, his parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and elderly great-aunt stayed in the Omni Royal Orleans to escape the danger of being caught in their homes.

“After Katrina, communication was so bad out of New Orleans that I became the voice of the two hotels and my own family all at the same time,” Netzhammer said, describing how his late aunt, who had fallen in her hotel room, had to be evacuated by his father to the Louisiana Superdome for medical treatment and was subsequently taken by paramedics to a hospital in Baton Rouge, where she was misidentified.

The threat of looters, meanwhile, forced the evacuation of hotel guests from the Omni Royal Orleans, including Netzhammer’s family. They were ultimately reunited and located their elderly aunt by her first name, Antoinette, after calling several Baton Rouge hospitals. Their homes remained standing, but he said his great-aunt later died after getting pneumonia, and that some of his other relatives lost their homes.

Having returned to New Orleans a half-dozen times since the city was reopened, Netzhammer predicts that its tourism, a major industry centered in the French Quarter, would be fully restored by 2008.

“It will be a much longer process to get these neighborhoods rebuilt to the point where they’re safe,” he said, referring to the Ninth Ward and Gentilly.

“There’s also a sense of real nervousness about this year’s hurricane season,” he added. “People don’t trust that the levees have been rebuilt well enough, and the hurricane season will be back upon them soon.”


RESUME

Job title and company name: General manager, Omni San Diego Hotel; regional vice president of Dallas-based Omni Hotels Corp.

Industry involvement: Board member of the Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau; San Diego Lodging Industry Association; San Diego County Hotel-Motel Association.

Education: Degree in general business, Nicholls State University, Thibodeaux, La.

Birthplace and date: New Orleans, Sept. 15, 1962.

Residence: Rancho Bernardo.

Family: Wife, April; son Ryan, 3; daughter Riley, 1.


BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

Essential philosophy: It’s a business that creates memories for people and gives them an opportunity to get away from their normal day-to-day routine.

Best way to keep a competitive edge: Know your competitors very, very well and their strengths and weaknesses.

Goals achieved: Opening the Omni San Diego. I interviewed everybody on staff from housekeepers to executives and I continue to interview every position before people are hired.


JUDGMENT CALLS

Best career decision: Joining the Omni Hotel Corp. in 2002 after serving as vice president of global revenue management for Starwood Hotels.

Toughest management task: Motivating the 320 associates who work at the Omni San Diego to feel great every single day about the job that they’ve done.

Missed opportunity: Not spending enough time with my wife before the children were born. I spent too much time at work, but I’ve learned how to balance career and family better.

Mentor: My father, Emile Netzhammer.

I’ve been told I’m: Patient.


TRUE CONFESSIONS

What I like best about my job: I love the interaction with the great people who work here and the guests and the fact that I see the results of our work every day.

What I like least about my job: E-mail, because it takes the personal interaction out of communication.

Pet peeve: People who are rude.

Person I’d most like to meet: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Most-respected competitor: I have the utmost respect for all of them.

Favorite recreation: Riding my Harley-Davidson Road King.

If I had it to do all over I’d: Not change a thing.

What I’d be doing if I weren’t doing this: I’d be out in a big boat, fishing in some tropical location where the water is crystal clear, the sun shines brightly and it’s warm.


PREDILECTIONS

Favorite quote: “Treat others as you’d expect them to treat you.”

Favorite musical group: U2.

Favorite status symbol: My Harley.

Favorite vacation spot: Take an extended European vacation.

If I could have any vehicle in the world it would be: A Lear Jet.

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