{"id":21291,"date":"2018-02-01T12:43:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21291"},"modified":"2018-02-01T12:43:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:43:27","slug":"billings-depot-chooses-new-executive-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/02\/billings-depot-chooses-new-executive-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Billings Depot chooses new executive director"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_21292\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-21292 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Michelle-Williams-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"Williams\" width=\"336\" height=\"201\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Williams will take over as the new director of the Billings Depot on March 1.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The historic Billings Depot has announced that Michelle Williams will be taking over\u00a0 as executive director of the community-owned venue, replacing Jennifer Mercer effective March 1.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Williams is currently with A.D. Creative Group where, over the past nine years, she has been responsible for strategy, account management and business development for businesses across Montana and the Rocky Mountain region.<\/p>\n<p>She will make her debut as director the depot\u2019s largest annual fundraiser, the Taste of Billings Black Tie Gala, on Saturday, Feb. 24.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Billings Depot Board of Directors is very excited to announce this appointment,\u201d board President Steve Wahrlich said in a press release. \u201cMichelle will bring leadership and creativity to the depot\u2019s programs and a deep sense of commitment to the development of the downtown corridor.\u00a0She has served nonprofits in program development, fundraising and brand leadership and has a breadth of perspective and experience in event planning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams&#8217; resume, the release continued, includes more than 15 years of strategic planning, administration, communications and marketing experience across industries, countries and consumer segments.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s currently a board member and marketing chair for Arts Without Boundaries, a local nonprofit, and she has been recognized with several awards including one of Billings 2013 Top 40 Under 40 and Outstanding Volunteer for the DFW American Marketing Association.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an opportunity for me to focus all my energy into bringing to life the stories and history of the Billings Depot for everyone in Billings to share,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere are so many amazing people in Billings creating great change and growth for our community and I\u2019m excited to be a part of that. I look forward to new collaborations and continuing the positive momentum Jen has created for the depot and the development of our great downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wahrlich expressed the board&#8217;s gratitude to Mercer, who has been at the depot for seven years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She has taken the depot from shaky ground to a place of financial and historical stability,&#8221; Wahrlich said. &#8220;We wish her the best and thank her for a job well done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mercer, for her part, said, &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t be more thrilled. I asked the board to find someone that would do such a great job that they would make me look like mincemeat, and they did it. Michelle will be amazing.<\/p>\n<p>The Billings Depot is a nonprofit, community-owned venue that serves the city of Billings and surrounding areas by providing discounted and donated venue space for fundraisers. The depot is best known for being the top wedding venue in the region, and offering free wedding planning consultations for newly engaged couples.<div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The historic Billings Depot has announced that Michelle Williams will be taking over\u00a0 as executive director of the community-owned venue, replacing Jennifer Mercer effective March 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":21292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[979,978,6560],"class_list":["post-21291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","tag-billings-depot","tag-jennifer-mercer","tag-michelle-williams","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21293,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21291\/revisions\/21293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}