UNH CEO Forum Features Steve Barba And An Intimate Look At The Balsams

Contact: Lori Wright
603-862-0574
UNH Media Relations

April 20, 2005



DURHAM, N.H. – From caddy to CEO, Steve Barba has spent his inn-keeping career at The Balsams and now the recently retired business leader is sharing his experiences at the next CEO Forum at the University of New Hampshire.

“From Caddy to CEO: Reflections Of A Grand Resort From Inside The Balsams” will be Thursday, May 5, 2005, at the New England Center. Coffee and networking begins at 8 a.m., and breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m. The program begins at 9 a.m.

Mark Twain once said, “Saints may perform miracles, but few could run a hotel.” Barba’s management style and operating philosophy have been organically developed through a lifetime of working at The Balsams Grand Resort and Hotel. From his first season in 1959 as a 13-year-old member of the caddy camp to his recently announced retirement after 35 years as president and managing partner, Barba has learned by doing the classic art of American inn-keeping. He will share his insight on some simple truths that have proven to work well over the years in making the Balsams “New England’s Resort.”

Ever since junior high school, Barba would return to his favorite place in the White Mountains whenever school was out. In1970 university faculty and students at Michigan State University went on strike in protest of Vietnam, so Barba, who was a graduate student there, returned to The Balsams. He never left. He has received numerous awards including 2003 New Hampshire Business Leader of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Business and Industry Association of NH and the New Hampshire Travel Council, and the UNH Granite State Award.

The Balsams is rated the best destination resort in New England by the Zagat Survey and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

To register or to become a member of the CEO Forum, call Barbara Draper at (603) 862-1107, or e-mail her at barbara.draper@unh.edu. The registration deadline is Thursday, April 28.

Initiated in 1997, the CEO Forum is an outreach program of the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the UNH Graduate School serving CEOs, presidents, and senior managers of companies in northern New England. The forum provides its members with opportunities to meet and exchange ideas with their peers in business and industry in an informal setting. The CEO Forum is sponsored by the law firm of Pierce Atwood and Ocean National Bank. For more information about the CEO Forum, visit http://www.unh-ceoforum.org.