Chequetta M. Dessources, regional vice president of the InterContinental Hotels Group, better known as IHG Hotels & Resorts, became involved in the bustling hospitality industry after experiencing burnout working at a major company within the retail sector. Before long, with encouragement from her husband, she was presented with an exceptional opportunity that led to a new career and her current coveted executive role with IHG. Ms. Dessources considers being promoted to vice president at the multinational company as her greatest achievement to date along with having been selected to participate in all the financial leadership programs that IHG offers.
Possessing strong expertise in finance, project management, and procurement, Ms. Dessources works primarily with hotel franchisees on building and renovating their hotels as it relates to the procurement of furniture, food, beverage, and amenity items while ensuring that they can place orders and while mitigating issues during the process. Among her many responsibilities and duties, she most enjoys leading a team of 15 people, engaging with them, and helping them come up with solutions to ongoing projects and objectives. Ms. Dessources finds it rewarding to witness the positive impact on owners when designs come to fruition in their hotels after the hard work is completed.
Ms. Dessources, who holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from The University of Alabama, has spent more than 20 years working for some of the world’s most recognizable hospitality and retail corporate brands. Prior to her current role overseeing the procurement of openings and renovations, she had a succession of other titles at IHG that gradually bolstered her professional prowess, including head of procurement and hotel strategy supporting the Americas; director of procurement and mainstream brands for AMER openings; brand supply chain director; director of business partner brands, procurement, and cost efficiency; global finance manager; and global procurement and cost efficiency category manager. During Ms. Dessources’ years at Home Depot, where she received the Chief Financial Officer Award, she was a strategic sourcing manager, a supply chain project manager, and a leadership development program internal business consultant. Beforehand, she was a financial analyst for Club Car at Ingersoll-Rand and a financial analysis specialist at Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc.
Throughout her career, Ms. Dessources has been passionate about people and sees herself as an altruistic leader. She is empathetic when it comes to helping others grow and has shown resilience in overcoming professional growing pains and challenges. The result has helped her to emerge as a confident and dynamic problem solver who now gravitates toward dilemmas that need to be addressed and solved. Ms. Dessources is also a proponent of empowering women in the workplace to ensure that they all have an opportunity to have the proverbial “seat at the table.”
Remaining relevant in her industry overall, Ms. Dessources is active with the Procurement Foundry and the Institute for Supply Management and was a board member of the Black Employee Resource Group at both Home Depot and IHG. Extending her commitments beyond business, she is a lifetime member of, plus a volunteer and mentor with, the Blackburn Institute, which implements its mission to develop a network of diverse leaders who understand the challenges facing the state of Alabama and the nation and who are committed to serving as agents of positive change. In addition, Ms. Dessources is a member of Women Leading Travel & Hospitality and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and a volunteer at her alma mater, The University of Alabama.
Born to Jerome and Velma Moore in Opelika, Alabama, Ms. Dessources is married to Sean Dessources and has a daughter, Sloan. She views her family as the cornerstone of everything in her life and fondly remembers when her mother would help take care of Sloan to give her time for herself and to advance in her career. Today, away from work, Ms. Dessources enjoys quality time with her family and friends, visiting the Caribbean, and practicing Pilates.