By Ali Yenchick
Each year at the SFC, we recognize teammates who raise the bar for what “great” looks like. This year’s winners, awarded at the first-ever SF Conference, show how far hustle, curiosity, and a focus on doing what’s best for our clients and communities can go.
Venue Hustle Award: Jennifer Quinlan, Wintrust Sports Complex
When the Venue Hustle Award was announced at the 2025 SF Conference, Jennifer Quinlan admits she was stunned. Now the Assistant General Manager of Wintrust Sports Complex in Bedford Park, IL, she joined the team six months before the complex opened as director of operations, helping to build the facility from the ground up: hiring staff, sourcing equipment and supplies, and learning—sometimes the hard way—what it takes to run a large, tournament-ready venue. As she recalls:
“You open this huge facility, and you don’t know until you know. So, we just had to immerse ourselves into all these events and really learn by our mistakes. And trust me, we’ve made many, many mistakes, but it was the only way we learned. And it’s the only way we got better.”
That early crash course shaped the way she hustles today. After moving into a director of events role and eventually being promoted to assistant general manager, Quinlan still books events and drives the business, but she’s just as focused on values as she is on volume. She loves chasing ambitious goals and beating last year’s numbers, but refuses to reduce Wintrust’s success to a spreadsheet
For her, true hustle looks like long-term relationships with the right clients—the ones who know that when they come to Wintrust, the team will go above and beyond to deliver a standout experience.
“It’s not just about the money,” she says. “It’s about having good clients and building that trust and those relationships so that they say, ‘I want to come back because I know Wintrust Sports Complex will have my back.’” That blend of grit, humility, and client-first focus is exactly why she’s the 2025 Venue Hustle Award winner.
Rookie of the Year: Nicolas Desranleau, Digital Marketing Manager – SFC Support Center
As Digital Marketing Manager at the SFC Support Center, Nicolas Desranleau earned Rookie of the Year by transforming how SFC builds and launches websites. In his first year, he took ownership of the entire web space, turning scattered, ad‑hoc efforts into a clear, repeatable process that gets high-quality sites live on time.
He mapped the full lifecycle—from intake and discovery to design, content, QA, and launch—then formalized it into standard timelines, templates, and project boards. The result: more launches, fewer surprises, and a consistently elevated first impression for venues across the SF Network. As he puts it:
“When I started, everyone was solving the same problems in different ways. I focused on turning that into a shared process, so every venue gets the same high standard.”
Colleagues praise his mix of technical rigor and calm, collaborative energy. Known for being calm under deadline pressure, Nicolas is just as willing to jump into the details—tightening copy or QA‑ing forms—as he is to refine the overall system.
“High quality and fast turnaround aren’t opposites if you design for both. My goal is to give the team the tools and guardrails so we can move fast and still be proud of every site we launch.”
That combination of ownership, process-minded thinking, and craft is exactly why Nicolas is this year’s Rookie of the Year: in just one year, he’s turned SFC’s web space into a stronger, smarter engine for every venue in the network.
A Well-Deserved Applause
Employees like Jennifer and Nicolas remind us that excellence at SFC isn’t about perfection—it’s about showing up, learning fast, and turning those lessons into better experiences for everyone we serve. Their example—and that of every nominee—reflects the culture we’re proud of across SFC: one fueled by ownership, humility, and a passion for impact.
