Dave Zunker Vice President for Marketing and Development Dave Zunker has been with the Columbia Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) since 2002. Zunker came here from Club Corp. as their director of sales for both Daufuskie Island, S.C., and Pinehurst, N.C., two famous golfing destinations.

Zunker was born in La Crosse, Wis., where his father was an air- conditioning man with Trane.

When Zunker was about to start the ninth grade, his father moved the family to Faribault, Minn., a short distance south of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

By the time Zunker was 12, he had two younger sisters and a baby brother.

In high school Zunker was the editor of the school newspaper, The Echo, played guard (the short man's position on the basketball team), ran cross country, and had a season with the football team as a halfback on offense and a safety on defense.

Baseball was Zunker's game, where he pitched a great curve ball, a good fast ball, and an apologetic knuckle ball.

At the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Zunker was a journalism major and the sports editor of the Minnesota Daily, the school's paper with a weekday circulation of at least 50,000. The local daily of record was the Minneapolis

Tribune, and the afternoon paper was The Star, but Zunker's student paper scored the highest putative preference rating among the city's cognitive elites.

Zunker's first job after college was with the newspaper in St. Cloud, Minn., but soon after he moved to the Minnesota Office of Tourism.

Zunker met his future wife, Elizabeth Butler, while walking his dog in St. Paul. It was 1982 and she was a graduate student from New Jersey.

In 1987, Zunker and his wife decided to move South. Zunker's Richmond connections in the Twin Cities were his best bet, so he moved from the Minnesota Office of Tourism to the Virginia Division of Tourism in Richmond.

After four years in Richmond, Zunker joined the Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Va., to become their director of marketing communications, leaving in 2000 for stints in sales and public relations at the Ivy Group in Charlottesville and at Club Corp in Daufuskie Island and Pinehurst.

Since coming to Columbia in 2002, Zunker has marketed both Richland County and Lexington County. Only about one- fourth of Zunker's success stories actually use the convention center, home to Zunker's CVB office. The other three- fourths scatter about the many hotels and motels and conference facilities in the Midlands.

For all of 2006, Zunker's efforts helped with the total 52,472 room nights booked, almost doubling the previous year's total of 28,660 room nights booked. The booked events in 2006 delivered an economic impact of $13,773,900, well above the previous year's $7,523,250.

Zunker and his wife have two daughters, Emma and Rebecca. This past May, Emma's last name placed her as the last to graduate from the all- women Randolph Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va.

Zunker's daughter Rebecca is majoring in early education at Clemson University. Like her mother, she plans to teach kindergarten.

Zunker's wife is a great gardener, and Zunker wants to be a great golfer. Zunker's in- laws live in Hilton Head, which suits his golf game.

The convention center's headquarters hotel, the Hilton, is due to open in two weeks along with its in- house Ruth's Chris Steak House. Expect heightened productivity from Zunker's office and higher visitation at the convention center.