People 9-1-2001

Meetings & Conventions: People September 2001

Edited by Terence Baker

Carole Wade is director of corporate meetings and incentive travel at Trade Development Corp., a meeting planning company in Century City, Calif. Wade has worked in the meetings and incentives business for 15 years.

How did you get into meeting planning? The very first meeting I planned was while I worked at the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York City. Then I began organizing fundraising events for United Cerebral Palsy and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. But I really started enjoying planning when I began working with Chinese and Far Eastern clients.

How did that come about? My husband, Michael, has run a business importing U.S. goods into China since the mid-1970s. When the government there asked him if he could help arrange for Chinese executives to travel to the United States, he recommended me for the job. This was during the early 1980s, when travel from China was restricted. I have arranged meetings and incentives to and from the Far East ever since, and with the world now courting Chinese markets, there are greater and greater opportunities for bringing China and the United States closer together.

How do you feel about the 2008 Olympic Games going to Beijing? It is such a wonderful opportunity, both for the Chinese and for myself. Within two days of the announcement, I received my personal invite to the games. My nephew is pretty excited.

Do you have time for any hobbies? My grandfather introduced me to art when I was growing up on a farm in Fairmont, W.Va. This interest took me to New York City and the Guggenheim, where I was appointed to the junior board. Now, I collect art in my Los Angeles home, and I have works by Andy Warhol, among others.

• T.B.

PLANNERS

NATSO promotes Pascoe
Michelle Pascoe is the new exhibition manager at the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of Truck Stop Operators. Pascoe was recently the exhibitor service representative at Freeman Decorating Co., also in Alexandria.

Two move up at Association Headquarters
Association Headquarters, the Laurel, N.J.-based association management company, promoted two employees. Susan Nelson became senior vice president, medical associations. She also serves as executive director for the American Society of Transplantation. William Pawlucy was named senior vice president, business and trade associations.