Ben Erwin was named CEO of Encore in August 2020. This leadership role follows him becoming President in October 2018. He is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the Company and overseeing the execution of its business plan.

Erwin was hired as Encore’s Chief Financial Officer in February 2015 and was responsible for global accounting, treasury, financial planning and analysis, tax and product management. He has a proven track record of developing global corporate strategies, leading finance organizations, and building high-performance teams.

Prior to joining Encore, Erwin served as Chief Financial Officer for TestAmerica Laboratories, where he led all accounting, finance, treasury, information technology and legal functions. Prior to 2011, he served as SVP Corporate Development for Cornell Companies, where he managed corporate strategy, financial planning and analysis, public market capital transactions, and investor relations. He has also held various positions at Enron Corporation and Trilogy Software.

Erwin earned his bachelor’s degrees in economics and political science from Wake Forest University. He is a member of the U.S. Travel CEO Roundtable and a board member for the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).

Outside of work, he is passionate about education and a board member for the YMCA Metro Chicago. He enjoys running, traveling, and following the Boston Red Sox. He lives in Chicago’s North Shore area with his wife and two daughters.

Becky Sheehan is a results oriented, collaborative leader with proven abilities to drive financial and operational excellence.  She has led all things finance, including treasury, investor relations, strategic planning, and capital markets transactions – including two initial public offerings through spin-off transactions. Becky has also led business transformation and sales enablement teams.

In January 2020, Becky joined Encore as Chief Financial Officer. In addition to all global finance and accounting areas, Becky leads revenue management, supply chain and procurement, product and the information technology and digital teams. Becky is also the executive sponsor of the Women of Encore, a network for the women across the organization to share ideas, support one another, and to deliver programs that contribute to their professional and personal development.

Before joining Encore, Becky spent the last three years as Chief Financial Officer at Cars.com. Becky was a key leader in the Company’s spin-off to become its own publicly traded company on June 1, 2017 (NYSE: CARS). Prior to that, she spent 10 years with FTD Companies, Inc., as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During Becky’s tenure, FTD was a publicly traded company (NYSE: FTD), which was then acquired and later completed a spin-off transaction to again become a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: FTD). Becky was also an audit partner with Deloitte and Arthur Andersen.

Becky is a Board member for Skillshare, an online learning platform for creatives. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Holy Trinity High School in Chicago. Becky earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Illinois State University. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, particularly in Hilton Head, S.C.

Trevor Ferguson was named Chief Operating Officer of Encore in April 2023. He is responsible for driving operational priorities to support the company’s global scale and growth. His customer service orientation and team-first leadership style make him the perfect fit within the Encore culture.

Ferguson is a servant leader with a commitment to leading and motivating our team members to achieve sales and organizational objectives. He excels at developing and growing organizations through enhancing team dynamics and inspirational leadership. He is adept in business and financial acumen, and skilled in strategy development, organizational alignment, program development, and goal-oriented leadership to drive innovative solutions.

Prior to joining Encore, Ferguson served in several capacities for Aramark over nearly 18 years, most recently as President and COO of Aramark’s Collegiate Hospitality business. Prior to that leadership role, he served as Vice President of Growth, Regional Vice President, Associate Vice President, and Director of Strategic Development.

Ferguson earned his bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago and his MBA from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad Graduate School of Management.

Outside of work, his hobbies include community involvement, playing sports, and quality time with his family.

Georgina Flores was named Chief Marketing Officer of Encore in November 2023. She is responsible for driving the marketing and communications strategy that supports business growth and enhances brand awareness. She will support revenue generation in partnership with our Commercial teams by leveraging our brand, customer insights, development of innovative products, and telling the story of Encore’s team members.

A seasoned and accomplished marketing leader in both B2B and consumer marketing, Georgina joins Encore from Aetna, where she was VP of Marketing for commercial and specialty markets. She led a team responsible for the commercial value proposition and implementing marketing strategies to drive growth, customer retention, new product launches, and digital lead generation campaigns. Prior to Aetna, Georgina spent most of her career championing marketing campaigns and developing teams at Allstate. She led enterprise brand strategy, award-winning advertising campaigns such as Mayhem, and product marketing initiatives across all lines of business. During her tenure, she built the company’s multicultural marketing function, executing integrated marketing and business initiatives to attract and retain Hispanic, African American, Asian, and LGBTQ customers.

Not only has her work been recognized with industry awards, but Georgina was named to the Advertising Age 40 under 40 list in 2013. She also was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Achievement. From a civic perspective, she is a Fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago, an organization that cultivates Chicago’s business, public and civic leaders. She serves on the board of Instituto del Progreso Latino, a nonprofit that focuses on the advancement of Hispanic immigrant families through education and career training.

Georgina earned a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Missouri, and a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University.

A Chicagoland native, Georgina lives in the same community where she was raised, with her husband, two teenage children, and Cockapoo, Rocky. When she is not busy with kids’ activities, you can find her taking an OrangeTheory Fitness class or trekking up north to Wisconsin for hiking, kayaking, and boating.

Tara Higgins is a global business leader and 25-year event industry veteran. Having started her career on the corporate side at DaimlerChrysler, she moved to the agency side after four years, then onto business consulting and a co-founder of a start-up. Tara joined Encore in October 2019 as President of Hargrove, and SVP Commercial.

As SVP Commercial, she is leading the strategy and commercial vision as Encore continues to evolve into the most engaged and effective event company for its customers across all event types.

Tara has managed and led multiple successful event businesses that offered results-driven events, experiences and campaigns across all event mediums (in-person, virtual and hybrid) for many of the world’s most recognizable brands. This included tech startups and companies in hypergrowth mode such as Alibaba, Salesforce, Rodan+Fields and Tesla to long-standing Fortune 500 global organizations such as Cisco, Oracle, Nissan, Chrysler and Gartner.

With much time spent within corporate organizations covering portfolio planning, contract negotiations, value-based selling, event pricing strategies and ROI modeling, Tara understands how direct customers look at overall event budgets. This has allowed for more innovation and larger returns across complete event portfolios.

Before joining Encore, Tara co-founded Rival Nation, a first in mass-market sports fan platform start-ups. Prior to that, she spent 18 years in international general management and leadership at George P. Johnson, with her last four years as Executive Vice President, Global Operations.

Tara also has her Global Executive MBA in International Business from Georgetown.

Whit Markowitz joined Encore in July 2000 as its Chief Legal Officer. He is responsible for the legal, compliance and risk management departments. His areas of emphasis include corporate governance, commercial transactions, corporate finance, labor and employment law.

Markowitz has worked in the hospitality and audiovisual industries since the mid-1990s, including serving as Assistant General Counsel for KSL Resorts before joining Encore. Prior to KSL Resorts, he worked in both the public and private sectors where he practiced general corporate law, real estate, and land use planning.

Markowitz earned his bachelor’s degree in business and finance from the University of Southern California and his J.D. from the University of Denver. He is a member of the California and Colorado State Bar Associations.

In his personal time, he is a commercial pilot, avid downhill skier and scuba diver.

Poonam Mohan joined Encore as its Chief Information Officer in September 2023. She leads the IT function in delivering innovative solutions that assist teams in performing their jobs while also deepening customers’ relationships with Encore, both aimed at elevating the team member and customer experience through technology.

Prior to joining Encore, Mohan spent more than 21 years at American Airlines, most recently serving as VP, Corporate and Enterprise Technology. She led a team of 800 and was responsible for the entire development life cycle and operations for technologies in the areas of commercial and
corporate, enterprise, regional airlines, cargo, and IT infrastructure. Before joining American Airlines, she spent three years as a consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Mohan earned her bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electronics) from the National Institute of Technology in India, and her MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. She has been recognized by several organizations and media outlets, including 2018 Women Worth Watching (Diversity Journal), 2019 Women Who Steam (Links, Inc.), 2022 Data Team Visionary (Databricks), and 2022 Women in Technology (Dallas Business Journal).

She lives in Coppell, Texas with her husband, son, and daughter. In her free time, she enjoys reading historical fiction, detective stories, Booker prize winners, and of course, business books. She also enjoys Zumba dancing to help her keep fit.

Mike Stengel was named Encore’s Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Venue Relations in September 2020. He leads Encore’s focus on developing relationships with hotel chains, hospitality ownership groups and management companies. This team also concentrates on business development with individual event venues, such as hotels, conference and convention centers, and stadiums.

Stengel joined Swank Audio Visuals in 1995 as Manager of Hotel Services in St. Louis, and served as its Regional Manager, Divisional Manager and Vice President of Operations before the integration of Swank and Encore. He was appointed Senior Vice President at Encore in 2013 and led Encore’s revenue management and process improvement groups, which included enhancement of the brand through the development of the Encore Customer Experience (CX) and Service Excellence (SX) departments.

Beginning in 2015, Stengel led the global Specialty Services group, which is comprised of specialized technical solution departments supported by industry expert groups inside Encore. These include rigging solutions, power distribution, digital services, internet services, creative services and simultaneous interpretation teams. He also began leading Encore’s businesses in Canada, Mexico and South America in 2017. Since 2018, Stengel has also led the venue services team in the Central United States. Throughout his tenure, he has led and participated in the post-acquisition integration efforts of the organization to ensure adoption and development of best practices through the enterprise.

Stengel has served on the Live Events Council Steering Team and has chaired the Membership Committee of InfoComm (now AVIXA). He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Management Companies Institute (AMCI), and the International Luxury Hotel Association (ILHA).

Stengel earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism with an emphasis in advertising and a minor in business management.

Outside of work, he serves on various local boards, including Marygrove to help with their mission of providing residence, hope and health to children in need. In his free time, Stengel enjoys scuba diving, snow skiing, traveling and attending his kids’ sporting events. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, daughter and son.

Charlie Young joined Encore in June 2016 as its Chief Human Resources Officer. He is responsible for all areas of Human Resources, including recruiting, compensation, benefits, payroll, learning, talent, organizational development, and HR operations. 

Young brings a wealth of operational and HR experience to the Encore family. He has more than 20 years of progressive human resources experience, and for the eight years prior to joining Encore, served as CHRO for hhgregg. Prior to hhgregg, he held various operational and leadership roles in his 21 years at Sears, working as a District Manager and Store General Manager before entering the HR discipline as a Senior Labor Relations Manager. He served as Vice President of HR for Sears Retail, and ultimately became the number two HR leader serving in the capacity of Vice President of HR Retail Store Operations and Supply Chain. 

Young was born in Philadelphia and earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration with a specialty in accounting from Gettysburg College. 

Outside the office, he has volunteered time with the Salvation Army, the United Way, and supported a team outing to benefit Feed My Starving Children. In his spare time, he enjoys exercising, traveling, renovating his home, and attending the athletic events of his kids, Charlie and Gracie. A car enthusiast, he also enjoys reading about the latest automotive innovations and has attended the Indianapolis 500 more than 15 times.  

Amanda Armstrong was named in the top five Women of Influence by Meetings Net Magazine and one of the 50 Most Influential Meeting Professionals by Meeting Professionals International.

She is the Senior Vice President of Communications and Industry Relations, and she supports the stellar team members of Industry Engagement, Communications and Social Media. Armstrong is responsible for the strategic development and management of Encore’s communication strategy and increasing its presence and impact in the events industry.

Staying active in the industry is a top priority. She currently serves on the Event Industry Council’s APEX Critical Response Task Force and the Event Leaders 100 think tank. Armstrong served as the 2018 Chair of the International Board of Directors for Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and was an advisory board member for Hyatt Hotels, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, and Elite Meetings.

Prior to joining Encore, Armstrong led the global meetings and travel team at Enterprise Holdings, Inc, the parent company for Enterprise rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo for 14 years. She led all procurement, planning and execution of the companies’ meetings globally and led the transient travel program.

She graduated from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations, received her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2007, Corporate Travel Expert (CTE) certification in 2011, and became a Certified Event Designer (CED) in 2015.

Outside the office, she heads off into nature to ski, hike, camp, or surf. She enjoys traveling and sailing with her husband, Jon, who loves to plan travel and culinary adventures.

If you ask her where she cut her teeth in our industry, it was at the tech table calling the show on comms with audio visual professionals who make it all happen.

Michelle Brown was named Senior Vice President of Operations & Customer Excellence for Encore in April 2023. She is responsible for aligning the company’s Workforce Excellence team, operational best practices, cross-functional project management initiatives, and the collective scope of scaling service excellence across the business.

Prior to joining Encore, Brown most recently served as Vice President of Digital Products and Analytics at United Airlines. She also served as CFO of commercial business units, Managing Director of Airport Operations, and Managing Director of the Mileage Plus loyalty program. Brown previously served as a Consultant and Team Leader for Bain & Company and held various leadership roles at American Airlines.

Brown earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and her master’s degree in business from the University of Michigan. She is a member of Women in Travel Tech (WiTT) and board Treasurer for Communities In Schools of Chicago.

Outside of work, her hobbies include bike riding along the Chicago lakefront and rooting for the Duke Blue Devils. She lives in Chicago and is a doting mom to her son.

Nick Chakiris joined Encore in April 2015 as Corporate Controller and was promoted to Chief Accounting Officer in October 2018.  In this role, he manages the corporate accounting, tax, internal audit, treasury and shared services functions. Chakiris brings over 20 years of experience in variety of accounting and finance roles, including significant experience in leading external reporting functions at public companies, managing timely and effective external audits and streamlining accounting close processes.

Prior to joining Encore, Chakiris had held various progressive roles in the Media and Hospitality industries. Most recently, he was the Corporate Assistant Controller at Tribune Media Company where he helped lead Tribune’s reintroduction to the public markets as well as the accounting and finance integration for its $2.7B acquisition of Local TV. Chakiris began his career in public accounting in the audit division of Arthur Andersen in Chicago.

He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and earned his BBA in Accounting from Loyola University Chicago.

Chakiris resides in Gurnee with his wife and two children and enjoys golfing, travelling and attending Cubs games as a long-time season ticket holder.

As chief executive officer at Encore Productions for over 30 years, Phil brings strength, vision and years of experience to the Encore line up. His major in cinematography and theater arts at Ohio State University initially led him into feature film and commercial production; however, after he moved to Las Vegas, he shifted his focus to convention and trade show production.

Phil has since overseen Encore’s rapid growth, as well as producing hundreds of shows for a wide range of clients including IBM, Sony, and General Motors. Phil’s technical and production expertise are widely recognized and highly regarded throughout the industry. He is often asked to speak at conventions and gatherings related to event and presentation technology.

As Encore’s president of the Casino division for over 30 years, Bill couples innovation with sound management skills to provide Encore with an energetic and effective management style.

Bill graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley in the field of finance and marketing. Since then, he has held senior management positions with the Trump Organization, Knotts Berry Farm, Aztar Gaming Corporation, and with the Tropicana and Harrah’s Hotel properties.

Sean Gillis, SVP Finance, joined Encore in 2017 and is now responsible for leading the organizations FP&A, Pricing Strategy, and Workforce Excellence functions.   

Before joining Encore, Gillis served as Vice President at Pritzker Private Capital, a middle market private equity firm in Chicago where he focused on the origination, evaluation, and execution of platform and add-on acquisitions in the manufactured products and services sectors. Prior to Pritzker Private Capital, Gillis worked at New York-based investment bank Credit Suisse in the firms Retail & Consumer Investment Banking Group.

Gillis earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Craig Hill was named as Senior VP, US Venue Operations for Encore in September 2020. Prior to this role, Hill served as SVP, Venues (East Coast), from 2018-2020, and SVP, Venues (Northeast Division), from 2012-2017. He is responsible for leading all aspects related to Event Technology Operations, resulting in successful meetings and events throughout the US.

Hill began his career in Event Technology in 1999 with Swank Audio Visuals, starting as Regional Manager for the Washington D.C. area. He was promoted to Divisional VP for the Eastern Division in 2006. Prior to joining Swank, he worked for the ServiceMaster Company, LLP, and Pitney Bowes in various leadership roles.

Hill earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C.

Outside of work, Hill and his family support an endowment for lung cancer research created in honor of his sister through the University of Pittsburgh. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Tracy, son Bailey, and two basset hounds. He enjoys working outside, continually trying to perfect his backyard. Hill also has a strong allegiance to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penguins.

Annette Moody serves as Senior Vice President, Production Group for Encore. She joined Encore in 2002 as Regional Vice President of Operations, and was later named to Vice President of Product Management, followed by Senior Vice President of Product Management, Workforce, Specialty Services & Supply Chain. She is currently responsible for Encore’s U.S. Production team, Las Vegas, Hargrove Operations, and Supply Chain.

She is energized by Encore’s unique ability to support end-to-end visions for customers and in thousands of locations around the globe. The mission is to continue to build upon the current foundation to create incredible customer experiences.

Moody came to Encore with 11 years of experience in managing supply and operations, including six years for a division of Panasonic. In her career, she has led operations, product management and supply chain teams, and supported a customer base consisting of large technology companies.

Moody earned her bachelor’s degree in Organizational Communication with an emphasis in Business Management from The Ohio State University.

In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and attending events. She is a die-hard sports fan, especially for the Chicago Cubs, Blackhawks, Bears and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Andy Nichols was appointed Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships in January 2020. His primary focus is enhancing global hotel chain venue partnership engagements, new and renewal concession contracting, relations, innovation, and driving value and productivity.

Andy has been instrumental in the growth of the industry of hotel outsourced audiovisual and technology services since 1981. As one of the original employees with Atlanta-based Total Audio-Visual Services, Inc. (TAVS), he remained with the company in various executive level sales and operational roles through mergers and acquisitions with GE Capital/Technology Management Services, Caribiner Communications, AVT, Encore Event Technologies, and Audio Visual Services Corporation (formerly PSAV).

Andy’s long-term support and ongoing involvement in the hospitality industry’s national associations allow him to regularly monitor the trends and needs of meeting planners and hotel partners. This allows him to ensure the services and technology the organization provides are cutting edge and targeted to maximize productivity and to help clients meet their goals and objectives.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Ga., where he still maintains his residence, Andy earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Georgia State University. In his free time, he supports the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Atlanta Food Bank and Georgia Alliance for Children, and enjoys playing guitar, golf, motorcycle touring, lake living and college football.

John is the Senior Vice President, Customer, and Industry Relations.  John’s focus is to create a persistent focus on the customer in the actions the company takes and to drive the organization to work together for optimum customer experience delivery.  In addition, John works with event industry organizations to further the purpose, mission, and values of Encore.  Prior to taking on this role in August of 2020, John was Senior Vice President, Sales, with responsibility for our global sales organization and all venue sales activities.

John has over 38 years of experience in the event technology industry and has held numerous positions within Encore in sales, operations, and executive management.  John is a member of the Encore executive team and resides in the Pacific Northwest.  John graduated with a BS in business from Grand Canyon University.  John has been involved with numerous industry organizations and has served on the MPI Foundation Board, the Event Industry Council’s APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange) Standards Committee (Chair in 2016-17) and most recently is on the boards of the US Travel Association and the Meetings Mean Business coalition.

John’s passions are wine, traveling, outdoor activities and especially exploring the Great Pacific Northwest.

Darius leads Encore’s global IT organizations and is responsible for expansion and development of Encore's digital products organizations. He has built teams to tackle the challenges of transitioning from legacy processes and creating new digital products alongside Encore's business leaders and customers. His mission is more than designing and developing world-class digital solutions; it is to transform Encore and its industry.

Darius has extensive experience as a leader and innovator in a number of tech, digital, sales, and consultancy roles.  Prior to Encore, Darius was a partner with OneWindow, a sales consultancy focused on improving sales strategy, alignment, application and sales operations where his clients were largely technology firms.

Prior to OneWindow, Darius was senior vice president and managing director of CRM at Tectonic, a leading technology and business services company that acquired Sakonent, a CRM consulting firm where Darius was co-founder and CEO. Sakonent was recognized by industry analysts as a top firm in its field, particularly for work with the latest technology platforms like Salesforce.com. Under his leadership, the firm grew to delivering solutions for commercial and nonprofit clients in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

Prior to Sakonent, Darius was CEO of Safepole, an innovative durable medical equipment firm. In this role, he was responsible for bringing a new patient care device successfully to market.  In addition, his background at Cognizant, Hambra Consulting and Inforte has included managing leadership, delivery and sales of strategy and technology consulting business units, and as part of Inforte's executive leadership team, integrating a major acquisition after helping drive a successful IPO.

Darius previously served as Director of Information Systems at Hospitality Resources Incorporated (HRI)/Presentation Services Audiovisual (PSAV), where he was responsible for strategic planning and operations management technology implementations.

Darius is frequently cited as an expert in technology and business strategy and has been published and quoted in various business and trade publications. He is also a frequent speaker at industry and nonprofit conferences and trade shows.  Darius holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Illinois.

With more than 17 years of experience across consulting, investment banking, private equity investing and operational leadership, Dustin Worley serves as Senior Vice President of International. In this capacity, Dustin oversees Encore’s operations in Latin America, Canada, EMEA and APAC.

Dustin joined Encore in 2016 to lead the FP&A organization before transitioning into operations to lead the organization’s Center of Excellence Performance Improvement team in October 2017. He has been in his current role since September 2020. Prior to joining Encore, Dustin served as Vice President at Peak Rock Capital, a private equity firm in Austin, Texas.

Prior to Peak Rock, Dustin was a consultant with Bain and Company for three years, working across numerous industries out of the firm’s Chicago and Mumbai offices. Prior to Bain, Dustin worked in several professional service and principal investing organizations, including Stephens Inc., American Capital, and GTCR.

Dustin earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Outside the office, he enjoys running, traveling with his family, and spending time with his wife, two kids and dog.