Daphne R. Kirby, MBA 

Daphne is a strategic thinker with more than 15 years of professional leadership accomplishments across a mosaic of industries including fortune 500 hospitality leaders, healthcare, construction, satisfaction measurement, and film production accounting in varying roles.

Aptitude

Daphne holds a Bachelors in management, an MBA in International Business, and a Business Ethics Graduate Certificate from Loyola University Chicago. Through the years, she designed and implemented marketing and strategic plans which garnered profit growth in excess of $200K year over year, customer satisfaction increases of 25 percent, was named Leader of the Quarter, Leader of the Year at Renaissance Pere Marquette, received a Chamber of Commerce Award, and a venue she led was awarded Best Wedding Venue. The commonality is her talent for correctly identifying the opportunities, design a plan, train to level up the team and execute the plan. 

Executive Summary

Through several leadership roles, Daphne has planned and executed over 1,500 social, corporate, and multi-day events on an international scale. She has also designed and implemented a three-pronged strategic plan which resulted in a $150K profit growth year over year, a 12 percent volume increase, and greater community involvement, garnering multiple awards including a Chamber of Commerce award and the Wedding Venue of the Western Suburbs.  

At Renaissance Pere Marquette, New Orleans, French Quarter, a Marriott International hotel, Daphne was awarded Leader of the Quarter, and Leader of the Year by senior leadership. She served as an R-Gem, (a select group of executive trainers) identified by the Professional Development Leadership to train new Ambassadors to the hotel, as well as chosen to participate in the Marriott Women’s Leadership Conference. 

Daphne’s background provides her with a strong foundation to synthesize project management, development, and operations needs to create multi-departmental solutions. The intersection through all of them has been identifying the “what,” breaking down the “how,” and meeting the goal on time and within budget. 

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  • "The hotel hosted our 2018 Sales Team Kick-off meeting. The event was wildly successful thanks to the superb planning and execution by Daphne R. Kirby and her team. I was truly impressed by the world class service and would not hesitate to rec­ommend this hotel. Mille Grazie!"

    #Daphneisamazing #superbplanning #worldclass

  • "Daphne at Le Jardin was wonderful to work with. Despite the high volume of weddings at Cantigny, she did a great job of making me feel like I was the only one on her agenda. Daphne was very helpful planning the details of the evening, and responded promptly to our emails and phone calls. She had a lot of great ideas that made planning certain aspects of the reception a lot easier. Daphne also helped come up with a signature beverage for us at no additional cost. She and her staff set up everything up for us so I didn't need to worry about finding family or friends to help get the reception or ceremony space ready. It was little things like that that really showed she was on top of her game. All the feedback from my guests was positive. Everyone loved how beautiful it was and I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. Thank you Daphne and the rest of the staff at Le Jardin!"

    Carissa A.

  • “Thank you for arranging the site visit at your hospital on February 11, 2004. Your organization of our trip and access to your managers and their expertise were very much appreciated. The information covered was very helpful. Our Methodist Team with duly impressed. Thank you again for your assistance. We appreciate your graciousness in sharing your facility and information with us.”

    The Methodist Hospitals Staff

  • "Daphne was an amazing hostess who made my rather high-intensity requirements happen flawlessly."

    #BanquetsandEvents #RenaissanceWay

  • "Daphne was a pleasure to work with from start to finish. She was so professional and helpful."

    TeamEvents #W2GDaphne

  • "I would especially like to thank Mrs. Daphne, our event manager, who helped out beautifully and was able to make changes at the last minute for us which we appreciate."

    #goteam #fantasticevent

  • "My husband and I got married at Cantigny on October 17, 2015 and we couldn't have asked for a better experience. The venue itself is gorgeous, I would recommend the East Lawn for the best view. However, the entire staff was amazing too! Daphne, our coordinator was so responsive and helpful from the very beginning and I didn't have a single worry the day of the wedding. We put our full trust in her and she delivered!"

    Cantigny Park | Reception Venues - The Knot

  • "Daphne Kirby did a great job of taking care of our party.”

    #OutstandingDaphne

  • "We were scheduled to have an outdoor ceremony but unfortunately we were rained out 30 minutes prior to the ceremony. Thankfully, Daphne let us decide up until the last minute to move the ceremony indoors and the staff did a fantastic job moving everything around for us. Service was fantastic and the food was delicious! We got caught in the middle of staffing changes and were mixed with many different people trying to figure out final details. Daphne was great and answered all of our questions up until the last minute!"

    bingbing13

  • "Turned out great! Everything was perfect the day of my wedding! Wouldn't change a thing - Daphne and staff were very professional and made sure everything was set up exactly as I wanted. Beautiful reception and great sites for pictures."

    ErinS1019

  • "Daphne worked with us to make sure everything was set up to be a success and did as much as she could to help make us comfort­able. She was also really flexible when issues arose during the event, and was accessible in the Executive Office or by cell phone the whole time :)"

    #Renaissance #Dependable Daphne #Awesome

  • "We had an outdoor August wedding at Cantigny followed by a beautiful reception at their venue Le Jardin. The grounds are beautiful with plenty of picturesque spots. The coordinator Daphne walked us through the entire experience, offered her suggestions, and was a huge help from beginning to end. Daphne even set up an individual meeting for us with their head bartender to work out the finer points of the beverage service and craft our signature cocktails. We received many compliments from our guests on the ceremony, venue, and the staff with more than a few telling us that Daphne organized the most beautiful wedding that they'd ever attended."

    #TeamDaphne #BestCoordinatorEver

  • “On behalf of our students and chaperones, I wish to sincerely thank you for the extraordinary experience that you and your staff provided us during your visit to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Your commitment to mentoring young people was strongly evident throughout our entire tour and made a lasting impression on our students. We appreciate your time and effort. We were impressed by the number of positive comments we received. Thank you for everything; the memories we made will last a lifetime.”

    Copper Country Intermediate Schools Health Careers & Nurse Aide Program

  • Reader's Choice

  • Leader of the 4th Quarter

  • Outstanding Volunteer Award