Toby O’Rourke has been promoted to the role of president of Kampgrounds of America.
The promotion was announced March 9 by the KOA Holdings board of directors, which also named Pat Hittmeier as KOA chairman and CEO.
O’Rourke has been with KOA since 2011 and most recently served as the chief franchise operations officer for KOA.
“Toby has been an integral part of KOA’s record success the past seven years,” said 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.”
KOA has experienced record growth in each of the seven years since O’Rourke joined the company. KOA was founded in Billings, Mont., in 1962, which 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, Mont. She came to KOA in 2011 as the director of digital marketing. Soon after, she was promoted to the role of VP of marketing for KOA before being named chief franchise operations officer in January 2016.
Prior to coming to KOA, O’Rourke was the digital marketing manager for Whitewave Foods (now DanoneWave) in Broomfield, Colo. 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 Corp.
O’Rourke earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a master of business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
