Executive Team
Michelle Manire – President
Michelle Manire, President and owner of CTC Destination and Meeting Management has 10 years experience as a Hotel General Manager for Stouffer and Doubletree Hotels where she managed multi million-dollar assets and over 400 employees. This combined with more than 16 years of experience as a meeting planner and event manager, lead her to start CTC Destination and Management. As the sole owner of CTC (a minority owned business), Michelle committed her company to use her detailed event management expertise while providing outstanding customer service.
Among Michelle’s many professional involvements, she is actively involved in the Southern California community as a member of the Downtown Long Beach Business Association Board of Directors along with many other professional associations. Michelle has worked hard to build CTC Destination and Meeting Management as a well-known entity and was recently awarded Business of the Month – by the Long Beach Business Journal.
Melina Patrick – Meeting & Events Manager
Melina Patrick developed a love for planning events long before her career at CTC Destination & Meeting Management. Born and raised in Fresno, California, she attended college at CSU Fresno from 2002 to 2005. A re-location to Huntington Beach in 2005 began her journey into event management at CSU Long Beach in the Recreation and Leisure Studies Bachelor’s program. Melina gained extensive knowledge about tourism, destination management, and event planning while networking with industry professionals. During this time Melina was able to apply her newfound knowledge hands-on while working within the service industry in Southern California. Additionally, Melina coordinated multiple off-site VIP events as a free-lance event planner in the Orange County area. In February 2008, Melina was a soon-to-be graduate and looking for an internship with hopes of a career in the Meeting and Event Planning industry. With her degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies, years of knowledge and experience in customer service and sales, and her passion for organizing events, Melina was ready to jump on board with CTC. She worked full time as an intern for the duration of the internship program, graduated from CSULB in May 2008, and currently maintains a full-time position as a CTC Meeting and Events Manager. Melina continues to organize local and national events, from small corporate outings to annual conferences, and is the key liaison to developing CTC’s technology, marketing, and online networking capabilities.
Barbara Baird – Corporate Sales/Business Development Manager
With ten years of sports and event marketing experience with Transamerica Life Insurance Co. of Canada, Barbara was offered a Director of Creative Productions position with Transamerica Life Co in Los Angeles, California. From 1996, Barbara managed award and staging productions, international incentive programs across the globe and national sales contests for a sales force of 20,000+ producers in the U.S. and Canada. Additional projects were to initiate and develop the marketing tools and collateral to manage a service award program with Tiffany & Co., President’s Club incentives and awards with OC Tanner and Brokerage Breakaway travel sales contests. In 2001, it was time for a 7-year exit from the corporate world, which allowed Barbara to concentrate on raising a family, and to work part-time for a family owned wine business, namely, The Connoisseur. Corporate sales and networking events were the emphasis at that time, and the passion for managing large projects and budgets were still there. Barbara currently manages the sales efforts for CTC and provides her sales and marketing expertise to clients on an as needed basis. Throughout the year, Barbara volunteers her time between charity events, PTA Board meetings and the marketing of an in-house ice hockey program for boys and girls in Southern CA.
