AFRICA – Durban International Convention Centre has formally appointed Julie-May Ellingson as its CEO.
In April, she took over as Acting CEO when after four years at the helm Miller Matola took the decision to leave the centre for the International Marketing Council (IMC) as CEO.
Ellingson joins the ICC from the eThekwini Municipality’s Strategic Projects Unit, which she headed since its establishment in 2005. As Head of Strategic Projects Unit, Ellingson was responsible for driving Durban’s 2010 and beyond strategy and delivering on the city’s 2010 FIFA World Cup responsibilities.
Ellingson has also acted as an advisor to the Boards of the Durban Point Development Company and Durban Marine Theme Park (Ushaka).
Prior to establishing the Strategic Projects Unit, Ellingson was the Joint Programme Leader of the city’s Inner Thekwini Urban Regeneration Programme (iTrump) where she was responsible for a range of economic projects aimed at increasing investment in the inner city.
Ellingson said her vision for the ICC is twofold: “First it is to be the best convention centre in Africa, offering a unique Africanexperience with the highest quality service and second to be a centre for knowledge sharing through which new jobs can be created locally, provincially and nationally.
“We are looking at improving the organisation’s management systems and skills base and a programme of improvements to the infrastructure of the Durban ICC is ongoing.”
The COP17/CMP7 conference is due to be held at the centre from 28 November to 9 December 2011. Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau expects 30,000 delegates and a delegate spend in excess of US$43m from the COP 17, or the17th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Bureau says the ICC’s ability to host the entire conference on a secure island site was key to winning the bid.
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