Former managing director is MVA’s newest board member

The Marianas Visitors Authority held an election during its general membership meeting last week and former MVA managing director Vicky Benavente was named the MVA board’s newest member.

Last Thursday, MVA held its biannual general membership meeting and board election at the Saipan World Resort.

Following the election, MVA members voted to retain three incumbent board members: Gloria Cavanagh, vice president, Marianas E-Land Group of Companies; Masaru Sunaga, general manager, Tasi Tours Transportation; and Ivan Quichocho, general manager, Century Hotel/Century Tours/SeaTouch; and elected former MVA managing director Benavente as its newest board member.

The election winners will serve on the MVA board for a four-year term.

Aside from the winners, the other nominees were incumbent board member Christopher Nelson, president, Flame Tree TV, Marianas Trekking; Doyi Kim, vice president, P&A Corp.; Perry Inos, partner and managing director, Tapped Out/AP Group; and Bochyul “James” Kim, president, Monster Pizza Pub and Sasamo Tour.

In an interview with MVA managing director Christopher Concepcion, he congratulated the four newly elected board members.

“We have three incumbents: Gloria, Ivan, and Masaru. We have our newest board member, Vicky. She brings a wealth of experience to the tourism industry. Vicky used to be MVA’s managing director. She has also worked with many different hotels in the CNMI. Her experience is going to be valuable for us as we move the tourism industry forward,” Concepcion said.

In an interview with Benavente, she said she feels very excited.

“There’s a lot of work to do. We have [a] good feeling from the business community that we are all in this together. My number one priority is to help MVA get its funding, and keep it funded so we can compete in marketing to get visitors here, and get the word out,” she said.

As for promoting the CNMI in Japan, Benavente said it’s too soon for her to speak about it.

“But I will support the Japan and Korea markets, and of course we need another source market and we all need to work on that,” she said.

The guest speakers at the general meeting were MVA Korea in-country manager Sejin Kim and the representatives of MVA’s advertising agency for Japan, Kelly Nguyen and Asumi Yamayoshi.