Jennifer Motruk Loy - Director of Marketing

One could say that Jennifer started her career in hospitality — as a coffee counter girl at a diner in a small town not too far from Annapolis, MD — where she worked until she was a freshman in college, learning all about a family-run restaurant business. She was a server, a manager and even a line cook for a brief moment, realizing that being in front of the guests was much more suited to her. The rest of her experience — from art handler to Blackjack dealer to the Director of an arts organization has provided her with a wealth of experience and insight that prepares her for just about anything!

While studying Art History and Arts Management at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, she put herself through school by working at a number of food-service venues including the four-star Sheraton International Hotel at BWI Airport, where her affinity for customer service and promotion helped to generate new revenue for the restaurant and sales office. From there she took a position at the multi-chain restaurant group of the American Café in the Inner Harbour in Baltimore, where more than 11 million visitors a year passed through, and where she quickly learned about turning tables and managing a busy staff of 25 servers. A move to Washington, DC in 1995 led Jennifer to Bertolini’s restaurant, where she was the lead bartender and assistant manager, overseeing marketing and promotions for the busy downtown location. She was quickly recruited by the management team at Mark Miller’s Red Sage, where she was the first woman behind the bar, also assisting with events and media outreach. An opportunity emerged to be on the opening team for a new Turkish restaurant — Cities - where she was also the first and only female bartender, often posting record single shift sales. When the opportunity came along to jump back into Arts Management, she took it, and oversaw the Washington Project for the Arts, managing numerous exhibitions, public programs, fundraising events and more. Marketing and public relations were at the heart of it all.

From there, Jennifer was named the Director of Public Relations at the Washington Design Center, a trade-only destination for architects and designers, where she organized, coordinated, planned and executed more than 40 special events and programs, both for the trade and the public. Her relationships with national publications and corporations are valued to this day, as garnering national press is key to a successful marketing and public relations campaign. Four years spent at award-winning architecture and design firm CORE as the Director of Marketing and Business Development introduced her to Dan Simons, for whom the firm was designing several projects. When Jennifer decided to go out on her own as a marketing and public relations consultant, CORE was one of her first clients, as was VSAG, for the Founding Farmers project, and the rest is history! Just google Founding Farmers to see what Jennifer’s done for the restaurant — and for VSAG.

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