Woman Leading the Way: Meet Chicago Northwest’s Heather Larson
By Jordan Bradley
Heather Larson, CDME, CMP, President and CEO of Meet Chicago Northwest—which encompasses the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, the site of a proposed new stadium home for the Chicago Bears—maintains a wide scope of vision for the organization and the region’s development.
Still, she knows that headlines are sparking new strands of conversation regarding the project all year.
“I imagine you’re going to want to talk about the Chicago Bears,” Larson said when she sat down for this edition of USAE’s Women Leading the Way column.
Yes, we do.
The Arlington Heights Chicago Bears Dome Stadium project has been in the works since the team bought a parcel of land in February 2023. But any decent sports fan knows that the public discourse around the team’s move from Soldier Field in Chicago has been anything but linear in the last several months, with lobbying groups opposing the project in Arlington Heights, misinformation surrounding the project, and neighboring state officials vying to be the new home of the franchise.
Larson, however, isn’t shaken by the shift in narrative.
“We know that this 326-acre piece of land that the Chicago Bears purchased three years ago for $197 million is still the best piece of land for the Chicago Bears Dome Stadium—an expansion of their business close to their headquarters in nearby Lake County,” Larson told USAE. “And we know that the Bears’ executive team knows it. Many of the ownership folks live in the area and over 50% of the season ticket holders for the Chicago Bears live in the immediate area.”
In her capacity as leader of Meet Chicago Northwest, she’s well aware of her role under the circumstances: “to evaluate the broader economic impact and advocate for projects that enhance tourism events and overnight visitation.”
She continued: “Obviously, we are very excited about this project, however, we have framed the conversation around economic impact, jobs, tax revenue, tourism, growth. As tourism leaders, we have to elevate the dialog and really ground it in facts. There was a lot of misinformation out there about what the Chicago Bears were asking for, so we aim to clarify and bring folks to the table.”
From Larson’s perspective, projects such as the Chicago Bears Stadium Dome require tourism organizations and their leaders to “position ourselves as connectors, ensuring that the hospitality voice is part of the conversation.”
Part of her steadfastness can also be attributed to the overall marketability of her region as it stands today, she said.
The suburbs northwest of Chicago boast more than 70 hotels, encompassing more than 11,000 hotel rooms, proximity to O’Hare International Airport, and one of the largest retail districts in the country, “and certainly the largest outside of the city of Chicago in the state of Illinois,” Larson said, “so we have a lot to offer for the visitor already.” The region’s accessibility—from the established hospitality infrastructure to the ease of access in the region’s roadways—also contributes to Larson’s and Meet Chicago Northwest’s “bullish” commitment to the region.
“While one project may evolve, our long term growth strategy does not hinge on a single development,” Larson said. “We’ve got a lot going on here in the northwest suburbs that we’re really excited about.”
That includes several things: the $30 million renovation of the region’s largest hotel and convention center, the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel; and playing host to several large scale events like the Coimisiún le Rincí Taelacha’s World Irish Dancing Championship, esports tournaments, and the PGA Presidents Cup at the Medinah Country Club.
On top of that, Larson said the Meet Chicago Northwest sales team is “aggressively pursuing” corporate associations and SMERF (Social, Military, Educational, Religious and Fraternal groups) markets, as well as working on “expanding our footprint in sports tourism.”
“The northwest suburbs are well prepared to host large scale events, and that’s been our focus,” Larson said.
Larson was born and raised in a small Wisconsin town, but Chicago has always had a treasured place in her life, having grown up going to Chicago Cubs games with her dad. When she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “I moved straight away to Chicago,” she said.
While working in sales at the start of her career, Larson said she “absolutely fell in love with the big grand hotels in downtown Chicago” eventually working as a sales manager for several of them, including the Allegro, White Hall, Drake and Fairmont Hotels.
Larson and her husband moved out to the suburbs to start a family, landing the sales manager role at Meet Chicago Northwest in 2010 before she was quickly promoted to director of sales for the tourism org.
In June 2021, Larson was named President and CEO. When she stepped into the role, Covid-recovery was very much still a focus for the hospitality industry.
“Demand was still uncertain,” Larson said. “Staffing was strained at hotels and even here at the bureau, and planners were understandable cautious as well. So what I’ve learned most is that leadership in uncertain times requires clarity and consistency, and, really, optimism grounded in data.”
In the years since she stepped into the role, Larson said tourism and hospitality professionals have all been struck by the same observation: “Our industry is incredibly resilient. People fundamentally want to gather. They want to collaborate, celebrate and connect.”
For Larson, this observation offered some clarity about her role in recovery, and the role of Meet Chicago Northwest, she said.
“I have focused in the last five years on strengthening partnerships and ensuring that Meet Chicago Northwest is seen as a collaborative convener and problem-solver,” she said.
In order to do that, Larson said, “I definitely had to evolve myself. I had to look at my leadership team, my executive team, and really just trust that they knew what they were doing.”
When she hired her replacement in the role of director of sales, for example, Larson said “she did it a little bit differently than I did—turned out it was a lot better than the way that I did it.”
Larson said that a part of strong leadership is getting out of the way of her team, “because at this point, I’ve got a team that really knows what they’re doing and we’re really excited. We have a lot of trust from our community because they’ve seen the results—that we’ve been able to bring the economic impact, frankly.”
But ultimately, Larson said, “Optimism is a leadership responsibility—not blind optimism, but the kind rooted in strategy and confidence in your community’s assets and your team’s capabilities.”