Rising Star - Kelly Devlin

Congratulations to Kelly Devlin, CMP for being MPI St. Louis' August Rising Star!

Kelly serves as Manager, Meetings and Travel Services at Bunzl Distribution USA and has been a CMP for 10 years. Kelly started in the industry as a Travel Director at Maritz in 2000. After backpacking through Europe in college, she got the travel bug and knew she wanted to be a TD at Maritz. She put all of her eggs into one basket after graduation and went for it. Lucky for her (and us!), she got the job!

Kelly joined MPI St. Louis less than a year ago and immediately hopped on the education committee and just a few short months ago, she took on the role of venue chair for the monthly programs committee. The venue chair position reports to the Director of Monthly Programs and is in charge of booking the venues for our six annual monthly luncheons. Kelly has quickly jumped in and has already booked half of our locations for the year! She is a quick learner and has been a huge asset to the team. With this sort of initiative, we can't wait to see what she is doing by next year! Education has a goal to get our venues booked out at least a year in advance. Moving forward - if you see Kelly at an event and you want to host a luncheon you better grab her because these are booking up fast!

When you do spot Kelly at a luncheon or MPI After Five here are some thing about her that you might want to know to break the ice:

She is a born and raised St. Louis girl. Kelly grew up in Des Peres, went to St. Joe for high school, and loved going to Mizzou for college. She has been married to her husband Doug for almost seven years. They met at Felix's in Dogtown and it was love at first sight! Kelly enjoys hanging out with her 2-year-old son, Declan, going on runs around her neighborhood, STL festivals/markets, trips to the lake, and spending time with family and friends. When she can get away, she absolutely loves being in the mountains, breathing in that fresh mountain air! And finally, she can perform a mean karaoke version of "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. Don't be surprised if a chair gets kicked over!

Kelly, thanks for all your contributions to the meetings industry, to MPI St. Louis and just for being awesome. We're so glad to have you as part of our team!