RALEIGH, N.C. (Apr. 24, 2015) - The Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau (GRCVB) is pleased to announce staff promotions and title changes within its award-winning Convention Sales Department.

Malinda Harrell, CMP, CASE, has been promoted to director of convention sales following Jana Rae (J.R.) Oliver's retirement after 10 years at the GRCVB. Harrell, an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality and tourism sector, has served as the GRCVB's associate director of sales since 2006. In her new role she will oversee the GRCVB's six-person Convention Sales Department while continuing to assist meeting planners that require the Raleigh Convention Center from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee along with all planners requiring 30 rooms or more from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. She is actively involved in industry organizations and currently serves as president for the Carolinas Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI-CC). Harrell has been awarded several top honors in this industry including the Association Executives of North Carolina's (AENC's) Patsy B. Smith Award and MPI-CC's Tomorrow's Leader and Supplier of the Year Awards.

Loretta Yingling, CMP, will transition to handle accounts in the Midwest and Western U.S. markets as well as the majority of the religious organizations that will require 30 hotel rooms and more including the Raleigh Convention Center. Yingling has been a national sales manager at the GRCVB since 2005 and has previously held board positions with MPI-CC, AENC and the North Carolina Society of Government Meeting Professionals (NCSGMP). She currently serves on the Board of Advisors with the North Carolina Technology Association and is a past recipient of MPI-CC's Supplier of the Year Award and NCSGMP's Supplier of the Year Award.

The GRCVB has promoted Nicole Robinson to national sales manager
. She was previously sales coordinator, a role she held since 2009. In her new role Robinson will oversee accounts from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee markets that require 30 hotel rooms and more and who will be using meeting space other than the Raleigh Convention Center. A graduate of Eastern Carolina University, she is has been an active member of MPI-CC since 2011, served as a committee chair from 2012-2014 and will serve on the organization's board of directors beginning June 2015.

The Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau, as the official destination marketing organization of Raleigh and Wake County, accelerates sustainable economic growth and development by increasing visitor and convention business.