{"id":611,"date":"2023-01-01T00:15:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T08:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/?p=611"},"modified":"2025-10-28T16:45:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:45:04","slug":"anthony-anton-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/2023\/01\/01\/anthony-anton-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Anthony Anton Inducted into School of Hospitality Business Management Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Anthony<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Anton<\/a>\u00a0(\u201991 Poli Sci.) is president and CEO of the\u00a0Washington Hospitality Association<\/a>, a member-based organization that works at the state and local level to find solutions to challenging issues facing the hospitality industry and workforce. He is a member of the Hospitality Business Management Advisory Board and actively engages with the School of Hospitality Business Management (SHBM). In 2022, he worked collaboratively with Bob Harrington, SHBM director, and Angie Senter, Carson College events manager, to create the Washington State Hospitality Conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read his full\u00a0bio<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT WAS YOUR MOST TRANSFORMATIONAL CAREER EXPERIENCE AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Covid was clearly the most impactful experience of my career, but it certainly wasn\u2019t positive. Our industry was hardest hit by the shut down, and we immediately had to move into solution mode. We had no time to dwell on how devastating it all was. It taught me the importance of having a focused goal and the importance of surrounding yourself with great people. Our team accomplished things I\u2019d never have imagined asking them. We had a laser focus on helping our members and the industry overcome everything thrown in front of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covid also reinforced a lesson I learned at Boeing: We can get a lot more done together than we can separately. We formed partnerships with destination marketing organizations and chambers to amplify our industry\u2019s voice, and we approached government agencies like partners with mutual goals. We worked around the clock with lawmakers and health offices to educate on the extensive safety measures that protected indoor guests and supported our workers, and we made it clear that struggling operators needed help. We secured more than $500 million in state and local grants for hospitality businesses affected by the pandemic, plus an additional $500 million in state and local tax relief. We didn\u2019t worry about who was a member and who wasn\u2019t. We just said \u201cHere, you need this information to survive.\u201d For younger generations, this response, and Covid, brought back into focus the importance of a trade association. They now understand the association gives them critical support and a needed voice in government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOW HAS THE SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IMPACTED THE INDUSTRY?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our association has hired over 20 WSU alumni since I\u2019ve been here. They\u2019ve brought great energy and enthusiasm and a \u201clet\u2019s figure this out\u201d spirit. There is something about our industry that is not intuitive, so it really helps to have people who have a hospitality degree. The Cougs we\u2019ve hired have all used their education and experience to make us better as an association. SHBM is a fabulous partner to the industry, and both sides of the partnership are stronger because of this. This partnership has helped make WSU\u2019s hospitality management program<\/a> rank number three in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of our industry leaders are WSU graduates. You can go back to Jerry Burtenshaw<\/a> and Larry Culver<\/a> or look to more recent graduate leaders like Taran Patel<\/a> and Emma Claire Spring<\/a> who have both been recognized nationally for their leadership. The program keeps churning out industry leaders, and that speaks to its strength and influence. I\u2019m really excited about how the school will impact the industry in the future. WSU\u2019s research capacity is set to really help transform the industry. It\u2019s still early, but you can clearly see how conversations underway will help our future. Programs like Pullman Saves the Planet, industry health dashboards under development, and work on topics like natural gas will be a key part of how the industry will transform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO HOSPITALITY STUDENTS?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WSU has such a friendly campus. Take advantage of that. Challenge yourself to get to know and get along with all kinds of people on campus. It\u2019s a risk-free way to become strong in hospitality. You\u2019ll encounter different types of people in the workplace, and you\u2019ll encounter different types of guests. If everyone you\u2019re having a beer with tonight looks like you, have a beer with someone else. Great ideas will come from those experiences, and you\u2019ll be better at hospitality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get involved in programs or activities on campus that really teach you how to problem solve. It\u2019s one of the most important things you can do as a student. You\u2019ll never know everything, so you do need to learn to ask \u201cOkay, how do we fix this?\u201d Gain experience with planning cycles and goal setting. A university can\u2019t teach you how to master the new technology that will arrive two or three years from now. But you won\u2019t get stuck if you\u2019ve learned to be a problem solver. Stay in that mode. Think about how to fix things because that\u2019s a skill you\u2019ll need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Anton (\u201991 Poli. Sci.) was inducted into the School of Hospitality Business Management\u2019s Hall of Fame in 2022. He is president and CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association, a member-based organization that works at the state and local level to find solutions to challenging issues facing the hospitality industry and workforce. As CEO, Anton has helped the association expand and launch initiatives to help the workforce succeed and focus on protecting and enhancing the hospitality business climate. He has been with the association for more than 20 years and draws on experience from being raised in a family with more than 70 years of hospitality experience in the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[],"featured_media":1145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[539,546,553],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/crimsonpineapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author?post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}