After a full year of headhunting, Sault Ste. Marie's Downtown Association has hired a Toronto man as its new executive director.
Salvatore Marchese was hired on Wednesday and announced as the successful applicant at an evening meeting of the association's board.
For the past 20 months, Marchese has served as permanent part-time co-ordinator of MarkeTo District Business Improvement Area, one of 83 similar organizations of local businesses and commercial property owners in Toronto and 300 in Ontario.
MarkeTo BIA serves the business community in and around Dufferin Street, between Wingold and Lawrence Ave West.
Marchese grew up in Grass Lake, a village of about 1,000 souls and a 45-minute drive south of Lansing, Mich.
He worked for eight years as dining room manager at Daryl's Downtown in nearby Jackson, an upscale establishment renowned for thin-sliced blackened tuna sashimi and herbed dinner rolls.
After gigs as a private caregiver, a carpet company administrator and a Toronto Transit Commission customer service representative, Marchese went back to school in 2015 at Ryerson University, first studying urban and regional planning, followed by local economic development.
He's visited Sault Ste. Marie several times in the past.
"It feels like a great community," Marchese tells SooToday.
"It feels like a place I would like to call home."
Marchese will move to the Sault and start his duties here on Jan. 11.