Former Visitors’ Bureau Executive Director Taking Over Tour Company

Cookeville-Putnam County Visitors’ Center Executive Director Molly Brown has stepped down to pursue a new business venture.

Brown said she thought it was time for a change both personally and professionally.

“At this point in my life, I wanted to do something a little more business owner orientated and entrepreneurial,” Brown said. “So everything that I had set in place with the Visitors’ Bureau that I set big goals for myself were starting to kind of fall into play.”

Brown first joined the Visitor’s Bureau some 10 years ago and served in several positions before Executive Director. Brown’s career will continue under tourism, but now as the owner of Tour the Upper Cumberland. A shuttle based business that explores the sites of the region.

“I’m from the Upper Cumberland so my heart is here, and so to be able to work in tourism which is the industry I’m most passionate about and to combine the Upper Cumberland with that and be able to really showcase the region, I am so excited,” Brown said.

Brown said she accomplished several goals she set in place before leaving: establishing the Visitors’ Shop, a Broad Street gift shop with Cookeville gear, creating an advisory council for the bureau and doubling the staff.

“First project that I had when I came on 10 years ago was the H.O.G Rally,” Brown said. “I think that was a huge event that showed us that we were a motorcycle destination, and we could recruit events like that. BlueCross Bowl prior to that was the catalyst that really gave us the confidence to bid on the H.O.G Rally. When you look back now and see so many people coming to the Upper Cumberland area and being able to host those events, it’s just incredible to see how it has evolved.”