Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/597435
t m c ยป p u l s e | n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 5 28 Q | Tell us about where you grew up. A | I grew up in a rural part of South Central Pennsylvania called Franklin County. I always tell people that it really is a great place to be from. A lot of my extended family lived within the area and my grandparents had a farm that they owned and worked for more than 50 years, which was really a great thing for me and my brother and my cousins. We felt like there are few things better as kids than to have the farm nearby. You have plenty of space, there are fun things to do, and you can let your creativity and your imagination run wild. So that was a big part of what we did when we were growing up. Another big thing was sports. Sports were always a central theme in my family. My father and my uncle were heavily involved in coaching sports as we moved up, and I always appreciated that, with the time that they spent and the commitment that they had to spending time with us. My uncle was the athletics director at my high school and my father on the coaching staff, so that made for a lot of great mem- ories. I've always felt like sports are a good training ground for your professional career. Sports help shape character, work ethic, teamwork and commitment. Plus you can have fun along the way and build some great relationships. Q | What was your college experience like? A | I focused on business and communications. I went to a small school in Maryland, which, fortunately for me, is also where I met the woman who would later become my wife. I didn't know exactly what I wanted IN HIS WORK AS VICE PRESIDENT OF PARTNERSHIP AND EVENT DEVELOPMENT FOR HOUSTON FIRST CORPORATION, MICHAEL HECKMAN HAS A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE SOME OF THE CITY'S BIGGEST EVENTS POSSIBLE. HE SAT DOWN WITH TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF STRATEGY AND OPERATING OFFICER WILLIAM F. McKEON TO DISCUSS SOME EXCITING PLANS FOR THE FUTURE, AND HOW IT TOOK COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT TO BRING THE SUPER BOWL TO HOUSTON. to do down the road, I think not unlike a lot of people. I knew I wanted to work in sports, but I didn't neces- sarily have a clear path as to what that would look like, which is why when the internship came available with the ball club, I decided to jump on that. In the area that I grew up, as I mentioned it was a great place to grow up, but I knew that there was always greater opportunity that I wanted to pursue. I got the opportunity with Hyatt here in Houston in 2002 and decide to make the leap. It was a big jump for my wife and me to relocate to a city the size of Houston, but we were happy to get here. Originally, we didn't know how long we would be here, but truly the professional and personal opportunities here have been more than we could have imagined, and Houston has made a wonderful home for us for the past 13 years. SPOTLIGHT