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Lisa Richards
Fleet Week San Diego
Lisa Richards is no stranger to how
much work goes into planning a huge event. As a board
member of Fleet Week San Diego ,she is an integral part of
planning the week’s festivities. As founder of a San Diego
corporate picnic catering company and owner of the largest
special event and off premise catering operation in San
Diego, some might say event planning comes naturally for
Lisa.
Hospitality Inc, the company she
started in 1984 while still a student at the University of
San Diego, is nationally recognized as one of the five
largest corporate picnic companies in America. The company
prides itself on being one of the most diverse catering and
special event companies in the nation, having many unique
divisions within the corporation. Lisa’s latest addition to
her business, Simcha San Diego Kosher Catering is San
Diego’s first fully kosher catering company. Another
division, Picnic People Services has expanded to include six
franchises throughout the United States.
The success of
Lisa’s company is evident by the many honors awarded to her
catering businesses. Festivities Catering is a
six-time winner of the San Diego Magazine reader’s poll for
“Best Caterer”. In 2001 it was also given the Gold Medallion
Award for best caterer by the San Diego chapter of the
California Restaurant Association. In 2004, Picnic
People/ Festivities Catering was recognized in the San
Diego Business Journal as “One of the 100 Fastest Growing
Privately Held Companies in San Diego” and won the San Diego
Chamber of Commerce Emerging Business Award.
Lisa’s
entrepreneurial achievements in the catering industry have
been widely recognized as noted by her many personal awards
and honors. In 1989 she was given the honor of becoming a
lifetime member in the American Institute of Entrepreneurs.
In 1991 she was named Small Business Person of the Year by
the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. In 1996, she was
the honoree of the San Diego Business Journal’s “San Diego
Women Who Mean Business” award for her work in event
planning.
Along with her career accomplishments
Lisa’s extensive community involvement has been a huge asset
to many organizations. She is currently on the committee
for the American Heart Association Legacy Luncheon-promoting
healthy hearts, as well as a member of the Greater San Diego
Chamber of Commerce and the San Diego Convention and
Visitor’s Bureau. She also served as President of the 2002
Holiday Bowl and Chairman of the Board for the 2003 Holiday
Bowl.
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