Seattle Convention Center CEO and President Jennifer LeMaster graduated from the University of Kentucky in Lexington in 1999, and, a few years later, thought she would one day become an athletic director. She initially worked in sports information and media relations for UK Athletics, her alma mater’s sports department. In 2007, she relocated to Atlanta to take a job as the premium seating manager for the Georgia Dome, which was then the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
“Sports was my original love, and the byproduct of working in sports is that I traveled to and worked with a lot of venues and communities,” LeMaster says. “[I learned over time] that these venues could and should do more for communities. They should be active participants in the infrastructure of a city. That is what attracted me to the venue side of the business. Once I got there, I thought it was a great balance of all the things I love.”
In 2012, she moved over to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, which at the time oversaw the Georgia World Congress Center, Georgia Dome, and Centennial Olympic Park. LeMaster worked in external affairs initially and was promoted to chief adminstrative officer in 2017. She was involved in the development of Mercedes-Benz Stadium (opened in 2017); the 2020 expansion of the convention center; and the 2024 opening of a headquarters hotel, Signia by Hilton Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center. She also worked with Carl Adkins, former general manager of the Georgia Dome, who LeMaster characterizes as the first “servant leader” she had met. He shaped her leadership style, exemplifying how to lead by giving back to the community and putting the needs of others first, she says.
“[Carl] was the person in my business life who said, ‘You have to look at things as how they could and should be, not how they are,’” she adds. “He was the person who revealed to me that I could see around corners. He was dreaming a bigger dream for me than I could dream for myself.”
When LeMaster took the top job at the Seattle Convention Center in 2024, her value of servant leadership manifested in her focus on people—her staff, attendees, and the convention center’s downtown “neighbors.” Regarding the latter, she recognizes that major events at the convention center affect small business entrepreneurs, condo owners, and others downtown who don’t attend events there.
“Nobody constructed this building just so I could have a job and run it. They built it to endure in our society,” she says. “I care a lot about responsible growth that is reflective of its community. Seattle pioneered that idea. My opportunity is to build on that civic legacy of how convention centers improve the fabric of downtown.”
