 Jim began his marketing career with Seattle’s Restaurants Unlimited, Inc. Following, he served on the reopening marketing team for the 800-room Westin Hotel. During this time he was appointed to the Washington State Governor’s Committee on International Tourism. He subsequently held sales positions with Doubletree Hotels and Hilton Hotels. In 1985 he directed the reopening marketing for Pierre Carding’s $45-million, 200-room Maxim’s de Paris Hotel in Palm Springs, CA. He also assisted in the pre-opening of Maxim’s de Paris Hotel in New York (now the Peninsula). In 1988 he developed an in-house advertising and public relations agency for the independently operated Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage, CA. In 1990 Westin Hotels & Resorts assumed management of the property and Jim was retained to run the resort’s agency and to oversee its $100 million expansion where he developed a national award-winning campaign, and a prototype for use by many other Westin properties. In 1993 he founded Wilmer Communications, a Seattle-based advertising and marketing agency specializing in the hospitality and travel industries.
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