RI Hospitality Association (RIHA) President & CEO Dale J. Venturini will retire from the organization in February 2024. Venturini has led RIHA, the official voice of Rhode Island’s lodging, restaurant, and tourism industry for more than 35 years.
“It is with the utmost respect that we announce Dale’s retirement from the RI Hospitality Association,” said David Smiley, RI Hospitality Association Chairman of the Board. “Dale has devoted her life to shaping the Association into what it is today; her leadership and commitment is unparalleled, and, in many ways, her name is synonymous with Rhode Island’s hospitality industry. Steadfast, passionate, and loyal, we know this was a hard decision for her and wish her a well-deserved next chapter.”
Venturini was recruited in 1988 by Ned Grace, founder of the Capital Grille, the late Twin Oaks owner Bill DeAngelus Jr., and the late Ted Fuller, then the owner of Gregg’s Restaurants & Taverns. She assumed the leadership role of Rhode Island’s premier advocacy group and was tasked with expanding its reach, increasing membership, expanding services, and eventually becoming the official voice of the industry in the state house and in the community.
In her role, Venturini also established the RI Hospitality Education Foundation (RIHEF) and its Hospitality Training Academy, the Association’s lobbying efforts on behalf of the industry, and its membership-based advocacy efforts. She has been instrumental in improving the industry’s educational and training programs in the state, as well as enhancing the bottom line of the business she represents.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Venturini was at the forefront of developments affecting the hospitality industry and led her staff, Board of Directors, RIHA’s members and the entire industry through myriad challenges and ever-changing restrictions while charting a course forward to ensure businesses remain operational. Under her direction, RIHA provided financial relief for displaced employees, adapted new training methods, assisted small businesses with SBA loans, launched a nationally recognized “Be Kind” campaign, worked with the Department of Labor and Training on workforce issues, and much more.
“Speaking for the entire RIHEF board of directors, I cannot overstate our appreciation for Dale’s commitment to our industry over these past three decades,” said David DePetrillo, Chairman, RIHEF. “A colleague and a friend, I have had a front-row seat to her forthright leadership and ability to do what it takes to keep our industry strong, economically vital, and successful. She will be missed.”
Venturini is a Rhode Island Commodore, a past president of the International Society of Restaurant Executives and is a commissioner of the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority. She also serves on the boards of the Providence/Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Newport Preservation Society. She has sat on numerous boards including the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), the Council of State Restaurant Associations, Miriam Hospital, the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, the Johnson & Wales University Feinstein Graduate School Advisory Board, the Wm. M. Davies Jr. Career and Technical High School, the Cranston Redevelopment Agency, the Dean’s Board of Distinguished Counselors to the Alan Shawn Feinstein Graduate School at Johnson & Wales University, and the 100 Club of Rhode Island.
Heather Singleton, Chief Operating Officer, will be named interim president/chief executive officer as the RIHA Executive Committee oversees the search process to appoint the next president and CEO.
