John Sweeney, VISIONARY

John Sweeney, RRP, is Co-President and founder of R&R Global and President of Global Resorts. Sweeney is a thirty-four year cherished veteran of the resort industry, whose distinguished career has encom­passed every phase of the vacation ownership industry.

As one of the leisure resort development industry true visionaries, he has worked in marketing, sales, de­velopment, and resort management. After assignments with leading resort development companies in 1980 he founded Global Resorts, Inc., now one of the world’s preeminent timeshare, vacation ownership and fractional consulting groups.

Global offers a broad array of services to hotel companies, financial institu­tions, pri­vate developers, ar­chitects, interior design­ers and attorneys that range from strategic business planning to direct marketing and sales services. In various capaci­ties, Global has worked on 500 timeshare resorts in 47 states and 53 interna­tional projects in 32 countries, including assignments with 26 Brands worldwide.

In interim assignments, Sweeney acted as the sen­ior executive of Acquisition, Design, De­velopment and Construction for Marriott's multi-project time­share resort system, Marriott Vacation Club Int'l. He also headed up RCI, Las Vegas, an international consulting arm of RCI, the world’s largest timeshare exchange company.

He is recognized as one of the true visionaries who helped launch frac­tional interests, a companion product to timesharing. His foray into this specialized field of Vacation Ownership started in 1986 with Tahoe Leisure Homes, the first high-end fractional project in the U.S. where he was a key executive. He has worked on a variety of fractional projects with Brands such as Hyatt and Fairmont Hotels, as well as non-branded projects in Mexico, Hawaii, Colorado, Utah , and Florida. The range of these fractional activities includes ski, golf, lake, and beach resorts.

Sweeney has been active in the America Resort Development Association (ARDA) since 1969, and has served as an Association Director, Co-Chairman of the Finance Com­mittee, and Chairman of the Eth­ics Committee. He is a Founding Fel­low of the ARDA Foun­dation Research Insti­tute, listed in Who's Who in Fi­nance and In­dustry, and has re­ceived many career ser­vice awards. He is a certified Reg­istered Resort Professional (RRP).

He is a founding member and past Chairman of the International Advisory Board for the UNLV Harrah College of Hotel Administration and teaches as adjunct faculty. Sweeney was named the 2003 Industry Leader of the Year by the Harrah College of Hotel Administration. Following his military service during the Korean War, he served with the National Se­curity Agency (NSA), the world­wide intelli­gence and cryptologic arm of the Depart­ment of Defense, covering activities in Europe, Africa, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Sweeney is a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon Univer­sity where he was a Carne­gie Scholar. He is an in-demand speaker, and the author of nu­merous articles on resort development, marketing, sales and finance.