Vice President, Sales and Garden Events

Description

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is seeking an innovative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative executive to lead Sales & Garden Events at one of the nation's premier public gardens and visitor destinations. Welcoming more than one million guests annually, the Dallas Arboretum offers an extraordinary setting for private events, weddings, corporate gatherings, group experiences, and signature garden events. The Vice President, Sales & Garden Events has the opportunity to build upon this strong foundation while shaping the next chapter of growth, developing new revenue opportunities, strengthening market position, elevating the client and guest experience, and creating distinctive experiences that bring people to the garden throughout the year.

This role calls for a leader who combines the commercial instincts of a strong hospitality executive with creativity, financial discipline, and exceptional people leadership. The Vice President will have the latitude to evaluate the business, identify opportunities, challenge existing approaches, and introduce new ideas while ensuring that growth supports the Arboretum's mission, values, brand, and commitment to excellence.

Equally important is the opportunity to lead and develop a talented team. The Vice President will foster a culture of respect, trust, collaboration, accountability, and achievement to create an environment where people are empowered to contribute ideas, grow professionally, and deliver exceptional results together.

For a leader energized by the intersection of hospitality, experiences, business growth, and mission, this is an opportunity to make a significant impact at an iconic Dallas institution with a national reputation and an ambitious future.

JOB SUMMARY 

The Vice President, Sales & Garden Events provides strategic leadership for the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden's sales, private events, and garden-events portfolio, with responsibility for driving earned revenue, developing innovative member and guest experiences, strengthening the Arboretum's position as a premier destination, and building a high-performing team and culture.

Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer and serving as a member of the Advancement leadership team, the Vice President leads the strategy and performance of Sales & Garden Events, including corporate and private events, weddings, facility rentals, group sales, and seasonal and year-round garden events. The Vice President is responsible for developing strategies that grow demand and revenue while delivering exceptional experiences for guests, members, clients, and partners.

The Vice President combines strong business and financial acumen with hospitality, creativity, and people leadership. This position develops and manages departmental budgets and revenue forecasts; evaluates sales performance, pricing, profitability, and market opportunities; identifies opportunities for innovation and growth; and ensures the responsible stewardship of organizational resources.

As a senior leader, the Vice President develops talent and builds a culture grounded in respect, collaboration, accountability, innovation, and achievement. The position works across the organization to align Sales & Garden Events with the Arboretum's mission, strategic priorities, brand, financial goals, and commitment to an exceptional guest experience.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Business Growth

• Develop and lead a multi-year strategy for Sales & Garden Events that advances the Arboretum's mission, strengthens its competitive position, and meets or exceeds revenue and performance goals.
• Identify and evaluate new revenue opportunities, event concepts, partnerships, products, packages, and business models that expand the Arboretum's reach and financial performance.
• Maintain a strong understanding of hospitality, events, cultural attractions, experiential programming, and competitive market trends, translating insights into new opportunities for the Arboretum.
• Evaluate the performance and potential of the Sales & Garden Events portfolio and make strategic recommendations regarding investment, pricing, positioning, resource allocation, and growth.
• Collaborate with executive and departmental leadership to ensure Sales & Garden Events strategies support broader organizational priorities and an exceptional guest and member experience.

Financial Leadership & Business Performance

• Develop, oversee, and manage Sales & Garden Events operating and revenue budgets, ensuring strong financial performance and responsible stewardship of resources.
• Establish revenue forecasts and monitor performance against budget, identifying emerging opportunities, risks, and corrective actions.
• Evaluate revenue, expenses, margins, event mix, pricing, utilization, and profitability to inform business decisions.
• Develop business cases and financial projections for significant new initiatives and investments.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity, profitability, and return on investment without compromising quality or guest experience.
• Prepare and present clear financial and performance reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer and organizational leadership.

Sales & Revenue Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership for facility rentals, weddings, corporate and social events, group sales, and other earned-revenue opportunities.
• Establish and monitor sales goals, pipeline, conversion, booking pace, pricing, and other key performance indicators.
• Guide development of proactive business-development strategies that generate new clients, deepen existing relationships, and increase repeat business and referrals.
• Ensure the Arboretum delivers a distinctive and consistently exceptional client experience from initial inquiry through contracting, planning, execution, and follow-up.
• Partner with Marketing to strengthen market positioning, sales collateral, digital presence, promotions, lead generation, and audience development.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with hospitality partners, corporations, event professionals, vendors, tourism organizations, and other external partners.

Garden Events & Experience Strategy

• Provide strategic leadership for the Arboretum's portfolio of seasonal and year-round garden events and signature experiences.
• Guide the development of innovative experiences that increase visitation, engagement, revenue, and repeat attendance while complementing the Arboretum's gardens, exhibitions, festivals, and mission.
• Establish clear criteria for evaluating existing and proposed events, including financial performance, attendance, guest experience, operational requirements, strategic value, and mission alignment.
• Empower the Director, Garden Events and team to translate strategy into outstanding execution while maintaining appropriate executive oversight of priorities, budgets, resources, and results.
• Encourage experimentation and disciplined innovation, using performance data and guest insights to continuously strengthen the portfolio.

People Leadership & Culture

• Recruit, develop, coach, and retain a talented Sales & Garden Events team, building leadership capacity and clear accountability at every level.
• Establish clear goals, expectations, decision-making responsibilities, and performance measures while empowering team members to take ownership of their work.
• Foster a culture of respect, trust, collaboration, accountability, innovation, service, and achievement.
• Model constructive communication, sound judgment, curiosity, and a solutions-oriented approach to challenges.
• Create an environment in which ideas and perspectives are welcomed, expectations are clear, strong performance is recognized, and team members are supported in their professional growth.
• Regularly assess organizational structure, staffing, workflows, and capabilities to ensure resources are aligned with business needs and strategic priorities.

Cross-Functional & Organizational Leadership

• Serve as a highly collaborative partner across Advancement and the Arboretum, building trusted relationships and working effectively with colleagues across departments, volunteers, vendors, and other internal and external stakeholders to advance shared goals and deliver exceptional results.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, timelines, and communication practices for initiatives requiring cross-functional participation.
• Balance revenue opportunities with mission, horticultural stewardship, operational capacity, brand standards, guest experience, and other institutional priorities.
• Build productive relationships with vendors, contractors, caterers, production partners, sponsors, and other external stakeholders.
• Represent the Arboretum with professionalism and hospitality in the community and with clients, partners, and industry colleagues.

Metrics, Analysis & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and monitor meaningful KPIs across sales, events, financial performance, client satisfaction, attendance, and operational effectiveness.
• Use data, market intelligence, client feedback, and post-event analysis to inform decisions and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Regularly assess departmental systems, processes, technology, and operating practices and implement improvements that increase effectiveness and efficiency.
• Provide the Chief Advancement Officer with timely analysis of performance, emerging trends, opportunities, challenges, and recommendations.

To help you stay energized, engaged, and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including comprehensive healthcare, a 401K, and Paid Time Off (PTO). 

The mission of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is to be a garden for all that enriches lives through beauty, learning, and connection. We are a world-class sanctuary where people and plants flourish in the natural environment. 

The Dallas Arboretum is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, age, color, ancestry, national origin, place of birth, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military or veteran status, genetic characteristics or disability unrelated to job performance. 

Requirements

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in business, hospitality, event management, marketing, or a related field; advanced degree or relevant professional credentials a plus.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in hospitality, events, venue management, sales, visitor attractions, entertainment, cultural institutions, or a related field, including significant senior leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust, influence across the organization, and work effectively with colleagues, volunteers, vendors, and other stakeholders.
• Demonstrated success leading and growing a revenue-generating business, department, or portfolio.
• Strong financial acumen, including demonstrated experience with budgeting, forecasting, pricing, revenue management, profitability analysis, and financial decision-making.
• Proven success developing and leading high-performing teams and developing managers and emerging leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to develop innovative concepts and translate strategy into measurable results.
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives in organizations with multiple stakeholders and competing priorities.
• Strong understanding of hospitality, client service, and the delivery of exceptional guest experiences.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, relationship-management, analytical, and decision-making skills.
• Experience with CRM, event-management, sales, financial-reporting, and related business systems.
• Ability to work a schedule appropriate to a major public garden and event venue, including evenings and weekends when leadership presence is required.