This episode of Lessons from Leaders is brought to you by Smart Meetings, the go-to source of information for meeting and event professionals. For more information on Smart Meetings, please go to https://www.smartmeetings.com

Our guest on this episode is Michael Massari, the Chief Sales Officer for Caesars Entertainment. Mike has enjoyed a very distinguished and diverse career. He is proud of his humble beginnings at age 15 as a busboy at a suburban Philadelphia catering hall, which introduced him to the hospitality business. After graduating from Cabrini College, he became the manager of the same establishment and then moved on to the hotel business where he served in sales roles with the Sheraton Valley Forge and the Wyndham Franklin Plaza hotels (with a short stint in Boston in between) before moving to Las Vegas in 1998 to open the Venetian as Director of Sales. For the past 20 years he has worked for Caesars Entertainment in a variety of senior sales roles and was appointed Chief Sales Officer in 2017. 

Throughout his career, Mike has established himself as a trusted and respected executive in the hotel and meetings/events industry and has served on numerous boards including Meeting Professionals International and US Travel Association, among others. He earned his bachelors degree in business administration from Cabrini College and an MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine.

In this thought-provoking podcast, Mike takes us on his journey from busboy to his current role, and shares his views on what it takes to be a good leader, in good times and bad.

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmassari/ 
Website:  https://www.caesars.com/