SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Visit Syracuse, Onondaga County’s tourism-promotion agency, announced that current Onondaga County Legislator Danny Liedka has accepted its offer to serve as the organization’s president and CEO.
He assumes the role previously held by David Holder, who departed the agency in June to become VP of tourism for Chicago, Illinois–based Jones Land Lasalle, or JLL, a commercial real estate and investment-services firm. Holder is based in Syracuse, according to his LinkedIn page.
Besides his service on the Onondaga County Legislature, Liedka previously served as mayor of the Village of East Syracuse from 2007 to 2013.
As Visit Syracuse’s new leader, Liedka will be responsible for providing overall leadership to “consistently deliver quality programming connected to the mission and goals of Visit Syracuse,” the organization said in a news release issued Friday.
Liedka will be the “primary liaison” with elected officials and community leaders to ensure resource development and overall direction.
Liedka has “several years of experience” in a variety of tourism and hospitality roles, including senior sales executive at Marriott International and sales manager at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Syracuse in DeWitt.
He holds “several” awards recognizing him for sports, sales and marketing efforts.
In addition to his work in local politics, Liedka is known for his past work as a color analyst for Syracuse University men’s basketball on Time Warner Cable Sports (now called Spectrum Sports).
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
(Photo provided by Visit Syracuse)