Atlanta, GA – Dan Graveline, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA), has announced he will retire at the end of 2009 after 33 years with the agency.
The GWCCA board of directors will form a search committee to find a replacement.
“It’s been a great 33 years,” Graveline said. “Now is the time to step aside and let the next generation take over.”
The GWCCA oversees the Georgia Dome and Centennial Park as well as the Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC), which is ranked No. 4 on Trade Show Executive’s list of the World’s Top Convention Centers with 1.4 million square feet of prime exhibit space.
Graveline joined the authority in 1976 as general manager of the GWCC, which was under construction at the time. His title was changed to executive director the following year. Prior to moving to Atlanta, he spent nearly ten years in the facilities management field with the Los Angeles Convention Center, Indiana Convention Center and Southern Illinois University.
Graveline oversaw expansions of the center in 1985, 1992 and 2003 that quadrupled its size. The GWCC campus also underwent $42 million in repairs and refurbishment after a tornado blew through downtown Atlanta in 2008.
Reach Dan Graveline at (404) 223-4000 or dgraveline@gwcc.com
