Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau CEO announces retirement

Marilee Fowler, president and CEO of the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, will retire in October, the bureau announced Friday.

'It is with mixed emotions I have chosen to retire. I want to have more time for family (especially my grandsons) and friends,” she said in a press release. 'I plan to stay in Cedar Rapids and hope to remain involved with the community.”

Fowler has held the post since April 2010. Notable events held by the bureau during Fowler's tenure include an overnight RAGBRAI stop in 2012, the first to occur in 22 years. Multiple NCAA DII and DIII wrestling championships were also held in Cedar Rapids during the last four years.

During her time as president and CEO, visitors to Cedar Rapids and Linn County brought $731 million to the local economy in 2012. During fiscal 2013, 87 events booked by the bureau brought 113,162 visitors to the area who spent more than $15.5 million.

'Marilee's energy and enthusiasm will be missed. We thank Marilee for her leadership during a vital time in Cedar Rapids with the construction and opening of a new convention center,” said Roy Nowers, board chair of the CRACVB.

Fowler said despite starting just two years after the historic 2008 flood, it was a 'great” time to join the bureau.

'I met with enough people and had gathered enough information that I knew the process was starting,” she said. 'Our job began promoting them and getting people to come back and see what Cedar Rapids had done.”

She also served on the board for the National Czech and Slovak Museum following the flood as a way to take part in post-flood community service.

Fowler began her career in 1987 in Dubuque as the director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. She then held the same position in Flagstaff, AZ, Coronado, CA, and Evansville, IN.

The bureau has begun recruiting for a new president/CEO.