Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism CEO Jim McKenna, far left, helps announce the creation of six new cuisine trails in the Adirondack Region on Oct. 5, 2018, at Tucker Farms in Gabriels. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism announced Thursday that it is hosting a retirement party on May 15 for CEO Jim McKenna, who expects to leave the job by the end of May.

The celebration will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza in Lake Placid.

McKenna announced his retirement in the fall of last year, and SearchWide Global was chosen to lead the executive search for his replacement. SearchWide Global is an executive search firm specializing in the travel, tourism, hospitality, convention, trade association, venue management, experiential marketing, sports and entertainment industries. The new CEO has not yet been announced.

ROOST officials are inviting the public to the party, including business leaders, elected officials, former colleagues, friends and neighbors. People interested in attending should RSVP to kristin@roostadk.com by May 1.

“We’re excited for Jim and to see what projects he works on next,” ROOST Chief Operating Officer Mary Jane Lawrence said in a statement. “We hope you will join us in celebrating his career and all of his accomplishments.”

McKenna has been the business and tourism marketing face of Lake Placid for the past 42 years.

On Feb. 9, 1982, the North Elba Town Board hired him as “business solicitor” for the Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce. Later that year, he was known as the chamber’s “convention director.”

On Jan. 1, 1989, the Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce and the Lake Placid Convention Bureau merged and became the Lake Placid Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

In 1990, Essex County reorganized the Essex County Department of Tourism, cutting the tourism marketing budget from over $967,000 in 1989 to $150,000 in 1990.

In 1992, the Essex County Board of Supervisors and the LPCVB board signed a tourism marketing contract and created the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, known as the Lake Placid/Essex County CVB.

In 2010, the Lake Placid/Essex County Convention and Visitors Bureau changed its name to the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.

During an interview with the Lake Placid News in November 2023, McKenna said he is comfortable retiring at this time.

“Why my comfort level is where it’s at is because the organization is as solid as it’s ever been,” he said. “It’s got staff that are committed, understand their positions, are accountable and are accomplishing a lot more than people see just in one community.”

McKenna began promoting Lake Placid with two people in 1982 and a $35,000 budget from the town of North Elba, and now ROOST is a visitor-funded organization with a staff of about 30 people.

“We were one of the first organizations like ours to bring everything in-house — all of our digital marketing, all of our web design, everything,” he said. “And we’re one of the few that have been able to regionalize their effort with other destinations. We manage nine websites, nine social media channels, different destinations and doing that all in-house.”

Asked about his vision for ROOST, he said, “It’s the result of my background, deciding in my educational years that I really would like to live and create something of value for the greater Lake Placid/Adirondack region. And the vision was ‘What could we do to make sure that this is a sustainable, long-term economy and then how do we get there?’ Piece by piece, we’ve gotten to have some influence on that.”

Today, ROOST — a 501c6 not-for-profit corporation — is the destination marketing and management organization for Lake Placid and Essex County, Hamilton County, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake. It is funded by 3% of Essex County’s 5% occupancy tax.