O’Rourke Promoted to President of KOA
KOA NEWS SERVICE (March 12, 2018) – Toby O’Rourke has been promoted to the role of President of Kampgrounds of America, Inc.
The promotion was announced March 9 by the KOA Holdings Board of Directors. The Board also named Pat Hittmeier as KOA Chairman & CEO.
O’Rourke has been with KOA since 2011 and most recently served as Chief Franchise Operations Officer for KOA, Inc.
“Toby has been an integral part of KOA’s record success the past seven years,” said KOA Chairman and CEO Pat Hittmeier. “Her eye for detail and her drive for excellence in absolutely every area of our business makes her promotion to president a very obvious choice.”
Kampgrounds of America, Inc. has experienced record growth in each of the seven years since O’Rourke joined the company. KOA is the world’s largest and most successful system of family campgrounds. It was founded in Billings, Montana, in 1962, and Billings is still the location of KOA’s Home Office. O’Rourke is the first woman named to the position of President for KOA.
“Leadership through strategically focused, clear direction while modeling effort, humility, knowledge and collaborative spirit defines some of Toby’s attributes that I find so invaluable to KOA,” Hittmeier said. “Her support of staff, and her unwavering expectations for quality execution at every level has made KOA a better brand, a better camping system, and a better company.”
O’Rourke is a native of Sheridan, Montana. She came to KOA in 2011 as the Director of Digital Marketing. Soon after, she was promoted to the role of Vice President of Marketing for KOA before being named Chief Franchise Operations Officer in January 2016.
Prior to coming to Kampgrounds of America, O’Rourke was the Digital Marketing Manager for Whitewave Foods (now DanoneWave) in Broomfield, Colorado. She also worked in brand management on the Silk Soymilk brand while at WhiteWave Foods as well as on the Hillshire Farms brand for the Sara Lee Corporation (now Tyson Foods) in Downers Grove, Illinois. O’Rourke worked in the software development and business consulting fields in Montana and Illinois from 2000 to 2007.
O’Rourke earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a Master of Business Administration Degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.