Visit Oakland Promotes Rhanee Palma

Visit Oakland has promoted Rhanee Palma to the position of chief sales officer. In the new role, Palma will continue to lead the sales initiatives of Visit Oakland and will  focus on strengthening partnerships to drive more hotel development to the Northern California city. She is the first Filipina- American to hold a C-Suite position at Visit Oakland and one of the first to hold the position in a convention and visitors bureau.

“Rhanee Palma is an integral leader of Visit Oakland, and we are thrilled to promote her to this position,” said Mark Everton, CEO of Visit Oakland. “With this promotion, Rhanee will continue to bring her expertise to our organization and continue making a positive economic impact on the Oakland community.”

Palma joined Visit Oakland in October 2016 as director of sales and later became vice president of sales and services. She previously worked with Hilton San Francisco Financial District and spent most of her career in group and area sales for Marriott International.

Palma is a member of and held leadership roles in a number of organizations including, CalSAE, PCMA, MPI, ASAE. She also serves on the 2020 Convention Sales & Services Committee for Destinations International. In 2019, Palma earned her CDME certification.

In addition, Visit Oakland announced the promotion of Lisa Baird to director of marketing. Baird will be responsible for strategic planning and development, and implementation of marketing strategies and communications. Baird becomes the first person under the age of 30 to hold a director title with Visit Oakland.

Baird joined the bureau May 2017 as marketing manager and previously worked with The Port Workspaces.