New York, NY – Today, trade show veteran Alan Steel was selected to become the new president & CEO of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Steel will start his new job in two days.
Steel recently left George Little Management (GLM), where he was company president, and will replace Gerald McQueen, who resigned in October after 14 years at the helm of Javits Center.
The move puts Steel in charge of a building he is already quite familiar with. Javits is the long time venue of GLM’s New York International Gift Fair and is in the midst of a renovation project aimed at increasing exhibition business.
McQueen, a former police official and inspector general at Javits Center, was a leader in the shakeup of the unions at Javits Center in the 1990s aimed at eliminating corruption and influence from organized crime. He is also credited with establishing stability to the Javits workforce and improving maintenance standards.
Javits Center currently offers 840,000 square feet of prime exhibit space and ranks 14th on the Trade Show Executive World’s Top Convention Center listings. Despite the ongoing renovations, the building’s long-term future was called into question earlier this year when New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a private company was developing plans for a major convention center at the Aqueduct Race Track, which would possibly result in Javits Center being torn down and turned over to developers at some point.
Providence Equity Partners purchased GLM in October 2011 through a new holding company led by Charlie McCurdy, who was CEO of Canon Communications. McCurdy, who is CEO of GLM Holdings, will also serve as CEO of GLM. Steel left GLM after a short transitional period.
Reach Alan Steel at (212) 216-2000 or asteel@javitscenter.com; Charles McCurdy at (914) 421-3200 or cmcurdy@glmshows.com
