Summertime hiring has been brisk, with a lot of companies bringing on new employees before the busy season gets into full gear again.

IMN Solutions has appointed Claudia Maurer, CEM as the new vice president of Strategic Accounts. IMN Solutions is a global, full-service association, meeting and event management company located in the Washington, D.C., area.

In this role, Maurer will oversee division project teams to ensure successful delivery of client goals and objectives.

Additionally, she will lead business development initiatives and collaborate with key division stakeholders for the continued growth and development of the IMN divisions business model with a commitment to strong service delivery, innovative thinking and enhancements for IMN clients.

Most recently, Maurer was an account director and international event marketing strategist for mdg and previously worked for Messe Frankfurt in Germany and the U.S.

Marketplace Events, North America's largest home show producer, hired Frank J. Bird II as president of a new marketing services division. Bird joins the company after spending the last 25 years in publishing in Cleveland, Ohio, including the last 14 years as publisher of Cleveland Magazine.

Marketplace Events also announced the hiring of Jennifer Wallin as brand manager, Holiday Boutique.

Holiday Boutique is an upscale holiday shopping event that the company first produced in Kansas City in 2014 with huge success; Marketplace Events intends to roll the event out in new markets.

Bellagio appointed Gregg Herning as the resort’s new vice president of sales.  In this role, he is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for all sales efforts at Bellagio, a AAA Five Diamond, 3,933-room resort.

Most recently, he served as the vice president of sales for MGM Grand. Before joining MGM Resorts International in 2013, Herning served as brand vice president for the award-winning Peabody Hotel Group.     

Association and event marketing agency mdg promoted Jennifer Johnson to vice president, association marketing, and Caitlin Fox to vice president, event marketing.

With 25 years of experience as an association marketing professional, Johnson leads mdg’s Reston, Va. office. She serves as director of strategy for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, which also administers the National Honor Society.

Before joining mdg, Fox earned a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Fairfield University and developed her event industry knowledge at 1105 Media and Access Intelligence.

In her current role, she consults directly for and leads teams serving event clients in myriad industries, from food and beverage to technology to energy and more.

Expanding the geographic footprint of its promotion of Kansas City, Visit KC, the region’s leading hospitality and tourism organization, is pleased to announce the recent addition of Francis Darko as sales manager. 

As sales manager, Darko will work in the short term meetings market, consisting of 200 or less room nights on peak. He will handle the East Coast market and Southeast market of the United States.

U.K-based IT Group appointed Andrew Beach as the company’s CFO. He will assume his role as CFO by Jan. 1 and will join the company’s main Board of Directors. Des McEwan will continue as Interim Group Finance Director until this time and will work closely with Beach as part of an orderly transition.

Beach joins from Ebiquity plc, a marketing analytics specialist, where he is currently CFO and COO.

SMG and Albany Capital Center promoted Doug McClaine to general manager of the Albany Capital Center. 

As general manager, McClaine will have direct overall management responsibilities for the Albany Capital Center in regard to facility sales, finance, event coordination, parking and operations.

McClaine will retain his title and duties as assistant general manager of the Times Union Center where he’s held various positions for 18 years in addition to his new role with the Albany Capital Center. 

Yuhi Kim was upped to senior event services manager of Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services’ Mandalay Bay office.

Kim joined Edlen in 2014 with five years of hospitality experience and has continued to take on a larger role in managing major events.

She has traveled to various Edlen offices to assist on events as well as with the production of such Las Vegas events as JCK, MAGIC, Black Hat USA and SupplySide West.