Hotelier checks in as Newport Beach Citizen of the Year

A high-profile hotelier has been named the 2018 Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

Debbie Snavely, general manager of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, learned of the honor Friday at the Gulfstream restaurant in Corona del Mar, where her in-the-loop colleague Gary Sherwin had met her for lunch under the guise of planning an upcoming tourism marketing trip to China.

She didn’t know a group of her supporters and friends was waiting on the patio, and she didn’t believe their announcement at first.

Sherwin, Newport Beach & Co.’s president and chief executive, works closely with Snavely as a fellow leader in the local tourism industry.

“I’m one of the many people in town who recognize her contributions,” he said.

Going beyond her day job overseeing the Fashion Island-area Marriott, Snavely chairs the Newport Beach tourism business improvement district board and the board of directors for Newport Beach & Co., the city’s destination marketing agency. She’s also a member of the Chamber of Commerce Commodores Club.

Sherwin said she transcends the hospitality business, with gestures like providing lunches for meetings of the Newport Beach Foundation leadership development organization. Chamber President and Chief Executive Steve Rosansky said Snavely personally makes the centerpieces for the chamber’s Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade awards dinner.

Snavely, 55, has worked for Marriott for 33 years, starting in the front office at the Anaheim hotel attached to the convention center. She has spent the last 18 years as a general manager throughout the company, opening hotels around the world.

She’s an Orange County native, born and raised in Garden Grove, and studied hospitality at Cal State Fullerton. She’s been a Newport resident for the last six years.

“I should be giving back to the community I live and work in,” she said.

Snavely will be honored at a Chamber of Commerce dinner Nov. 2.

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