Carolina Inn general manager crosses Tobacco Road

Jack Schmidt is being teased for jumping ship from Tar Heel country to Blue Devil territory.

Schmidt, the general manager of the Carolina Inn, served his last day Friday and will begin his new position at the Duke University equivalent at the end of the month.

“I was on the board of directors for the Chapel Hill Visitors Bureau, and when I told them, they were all right with me leaving up until the time I said I was going to Washington Duke,” he said.

Schmidt will serve as the director of sales and marketing at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club beginning Sept. 30.

Jim Bressler, the current director of sales and marketing at the Washington Duke, confirmed Schmidt’s new position. He declined to make any further comments.

Schmidt started as the director of sales and marketing at the Carolina Inn for a year and a half before becoming the general manager.

“It’s been an incredibly wonderful three-year run here at the inn,” Schmidt said.

Gabriel Leal, a bartender at the Carolina Inn, said Schmidt was one of the best managers he has seen during his time there.

“We’ve had managers in the past that come straight into their offices and we never see them, ever,” Leal said.

“He’s one of the guys that will come around and say, ‘Hello, how are you doing, how are things?’ You’d see him.”

Schmidt said his job offer from the Washington Duke was unsolicited.

“I’ve known the principals that operate the Washington Duke for almost three decades, and when they presented me an opportunity to join their team, it seemed like a good thing to do,” he said.

Schmidt will not have to relocate for his new job, and is happy to be able to continue living in the Triangle area.

Though he is switching inns, he said he does not think it will be too big of a transition.

“The fundamentals are all the same,” he said.

“It’s about providing excellent service and making good memories for all the people that stay at either place. That’s the business we’re in, the business of making memories.”

Leal said he, along with many other employees, will miss Schmidt’s leadership.

As for a replacement, a national search is currently underway, Schmidt said. Destination Hotels & Resorts and UNC Management Company are involved in the search.

“We’ll have to wait and see what’s going to happen,” Leal said.

Schmidt said he’s fond of the time he spent at the Carolina Inn.

“When you work for a property like this owned by a university, you look at things more generationally than you do transactionally,” he said.

“It gives you the ability to really fall in love with an asset completely differently than you would with something that’s just a job.”

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