Viad Corp Strengthens Leadership Team with Key Appointments

Viad Corp VVI today announced that it has strengthened its leadership team with two key appointments. Derek Linde joined Viad on April 30 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and Jay Altizer will join the company on May 14 as President, North America at GES.

Steve Moster, president and chief executive officer of Viad, said, "I am excited to welcome Derek and Jay to the Viad team. They are both proven leaders who will add important bench strength and expertise to help drive our strategic growth goals. I look forward to working closely with each of them as we work to further scale the Pursuit business and position GES as the preferred global, full-service provider for live events."

Linde will manage Viad's legal function and advise the organization on legal, strategic and compliance matters. He brings significant experience with mergers and acquisitions, securities and capital markets, corporate governance and SEC matters, and in providing strategic and legal services to diversified, global businesses. He joins Viad from Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW, where he was Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary, and he was previously a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. Linde holds a J.D. from the Vanderbilt School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Altizer will lead GES' exhibition and conference business in the United States and Canada with a focus on accelerating growth and margin improvement. He brings extensive management experience, including a proven ability to drive profitable growth in competitive industries through operational excellence, business development and product innovation. He has successfully led teams at Dean Foods, PepsiCo, and Bain & Company. Altizer holds an MBA from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and a B.S. in both Management and Management Science from Virginia Tech.

About Viad

Viad VVI generates revenue and shareholder value through two business units: GES and Pursuit. GES is a global, full-service live events company offering a comprehensive range of services to the world's leading brands and event organizers. Pursuit is a collection of iconic travel experiences in Alaska, Montana and Western Canada that showcase the best of Banff, Jasper, Waterton Lakes, Glacier, Denali and Kenai Fjords national parks. Viad is an S&P SmallCap 600 company. For more information about Viad, visit www.viad.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words, and variations of words, such as "will," "may," "expect," "would," "could," "might," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "anticipate," "deliver," "seek," "aim," "potential," "target," "outlook," and similar expressions are intended to identify our forward-looking statements. Similarly, statements that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and are subject to a host of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • our ability to successfully integrate and achieve established financial and strategic goals from acquisitions;
  • our dependence on large exhibition event clients;
  • the importance of key members of our account teams to our business relationships;
  • the competitive nature of the industries in which we operate;
  • travel industry disruptions;
  • transportation disruptions and increases in transportation costs;
  • seasonality of our businesses;
  • terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other catastrophic events;
  • fluctuations in general economic conditions;
  • the impact of recent U.S. tax legislation;
  • our exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations;
  • our multi-employer pension plan funding obligations;
  • our exposure to labor cost increases and work stoppages related to unionized employees;
  • our exposure to cybersecurity attacks and threats;
  • compliance with laws governing the collection, storage, handling and transfer of personal data and our exposure to legal claims and fines for data breaches or improper handling of such data;
  • unanticipated delays and cost overruns of our capital projects, and our ability to achieve established financial and strategic goals of such projects;
  • adverse effects of show rotation on our periodic results and operating margins;
  • the effects of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union;
  • liabilities relating to prior and discontinued operations; and
  • those risks discussed in Item IA, "Risk Factors," included in the 2017 Form 10-K.

Please see our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. We disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this news release except as required by applicable law or regulation.

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