Las Vegas Team Members Honored for Completing Sands Academy's "Elevate" Series

In February, The Venetian and The Palazzo honored 17 Team Members who completed all classes within Sands Academy’s “Elevate” series in 2017. The Las Vegas properties’ president and chief operating officer, George Markantonis, and senior vice president of operations, Pete Boyd, were in attendance to personally congratulate them with special certificates.

Sands Academy provides Las Vegas Sands Team Members with the opportunity to attend courses to excel and improve their skills within the hospitality industry. Sands Academy launched the “Elevate” series as a set of courses that focuses on providing tools for leaders to manage their teams and build relationships to ensure success within their departments.

Linda Emma-Link, retail manager at The Venetian and The Palazzo, made it a goal to attend all of the series’ training courses and believes the results have paid off.

“The ‘Elevate’ classes have helped me so much to become a better leader in the Retail Department. I feel I am a better leader and can handle just about anything,” Emma-Link said.

Learning new processes to handle daily challenges was one of the aspects Emma-Link liked most from the series. But it was the growth and added confidence that has helped her exceed at her job.

“When I first started six years ago, it was rough going for me. From a previous job where I only had eight beauty advisors under me, I had four stores to manage and 43 Team Members to handle at The Venetian and the Palazzo. There were days I wasn’t sure I was going to make it,” she said. “But I stuck with it and I have to say, the training available to supervisors and above at Las Vegas Sands has really put me in a better level of handling my position in management. And because of that, I am a better leader.”

Fellow Team Members have had similar results to Emma-Link, such as front drive manager of Guest Services, Michelle Rieker, who had recently transitioned into a leadership role managing more than 200 Team Members when she first attended the courses.

“I feel that ‘Elevate’ helped me become a stronger manager,” Rieker said. “I walked into my new position with a different outlook and decided that I wanted to better the management team with the knowledge that I have learned. I was able to show my team a level of respect and earn their respect in return.”