Erica Drumond

Erica has a deep understanding of hotel ownership, management and development. She is the current Vice President of Associação Brasileira da Indústria Hoteleira- Nacional (“ABIH”), Brazil’s largest association of hoteliers. She is also a shareholder of Ouro Minas Palace Hotel, a 365-room 5-Star hotel in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais and she was the Managing Director (1997-2006). Erica is the founder and was the CEO of Vert Hotéis / E Hotelaria e Turismo Ltda, (“Vert”) a hotel management company that is the largest franchisee of Wyndham Hotels in Brazil. Atlantica Hotels exercised an option to purchase Vert in March of 2020. Vert has 26 hotels under management and has signed contracts to manage 22 additional properties that are at varying stages of development but targeted for opening by 2025. Erica also created and developed a mid-scale brand “E-Suites” which Vert sold to Atlantica in 2018. Erica is the former Secretary of State (Tourism) for the State of Minas Gerais (2007-2010). As Secretary she successfully negotiated commitments to create new international flights to her State’s international airport with American Airlines, COPA Airlines (Panama) and TAP (Portugal). She also successfully negotiated incentives to create flights between Minas Gerais and Miami as well as Paris (LATAM). Between 2004 and 2007, Erica served as the President of the Belo Horizonte Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. Belo Horizonte is the third largest city in Brazil with 3 million citizens. Erica served as President of the Administrative Council for Prominas, the state company that operates two convention facilities in Belo Horizonte (2007-2014). In that role she successfully guided the company to seven years of operational profitability reversing years of operational debts. Erica earned a Masters Degree (Marketing) from Fundacao Getulio Vargas. Prior to her post-graduate studies, she graduated from Universitario Newton Paiva in Belo Horizonte with a degree in Social Communications. She studied Hotel Administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Erica has lectured on various management topics internationally and has received many awards and honors for her work in the hotel industry. Her last study was at San Paul University, in an program for CEOs- SEER (2019)