When Gov. Dave Freudenthal hired Diane Shober to be Wyoming’s Office of Tourism director 22 years ago, his initial impression was that she was too bubbly for the job, an “unbearably happy human being.”
It didn’t take long, however, for Freudenthal to realize that her enthusiasm was actually her superpower.
Now with Shober announcing plans to retire at the end of 2025, Freudenthal can look back and laugh a little at his misgivings at the time.
“She sort of mobilized the (tourism) community in a way that, frankly, I’m not sure anyone else could have done,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “She is a little bit, as I told her, like Doris Day — too happy, too energetic, way too bubbly.
“But I came to understand that that’s what the (tourism) business is about. It takes that kind of personality to do it.”
Her energy is going to be missed once she steps down, Freudenthal predicted. The next director will have big shoes to fill. Wyoming’s tourism economy is now second in the state behind oil and gas, and tax revenues from tourism industry have more than doubled.
“She institutionalized the idea that travel and tourism are an important part of the Wyoming economy, and she did that in the face of a preceding era in which it had been significantly downgraded,” Freudenthal said. “She’s done a remarkable job.
“I don’t know what she’s going to do with her retirement, but whatever it is, I expect she’ll do it really well.”
‘What An Amazing Opportunity’
Shober declined an interview with Cowboy State Daily about her retirement, but, in an email she sent out on Wednesday to a select group of tourism stakeholders across the state, she thanked everyone for believing in her and taking a chance on her in 2003, when she was hired.
“As valued leaders who have lent your time and expertise to the Wyoming Tourism Board, I want to let you know that I have decided to hang up my spurs at the end of 2025,” Shober said in the email. “I met with Governor (Mark) Gordon last Monday and the Wyoming Tourism Board at their retreat in Cody to set the wheels in motion.”
Shober said her time in Wyoming after returning to the state from a job in Chicago has been second to none.
“What an amazing opportunity I have had … working in an industry that I love, in a place that I love, and with people who I love,” she said. “Your leadership and passion for this work added so much to my career, and I’m excited for the next Executive Director to catapult this industry to even higher levels.”
Shober went on to say in the email that she will continue working the next eight months, with no plans to leave Cheyenne anytime soon.
Gordon said Shober’s love of Wyoming helped push her work above and beyond.
“Her outstanding work has let the rest of the world know that Wyoming is the outstanding destination that those of us who live here already know it is,” he told Cowboy State Daily in an email. “We’re grateful for her long and distinguished service to the state.”
C.J. Box: Best In Country
Darren Rudloff was serving with Visit Cheyenne when he first met Shober.
“She came in and said, ‘Let’s pull up our sleeves and get to work,’” he recalled. “That coalesced the industry fairly quickly.”
At the time, he attributed all of her energy to a kind of honeymoon phase.
“But her optimism and friendliness and hard work never slowed down during the entire time,” he said. “She stayed pretty consistent. It wasn’t just an initial burst of energy.”
That energy and enthusiasm was infectious and irresistible, Wyoming’s New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box told Cowboy State Daily. Before he became the best-selling author of the popular Joe Pickett series, which was made into a television series as well, he and his wife had an international tourism marketing company for 24 years.
“We worked with overseas marketing for Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, North Dakota and Colorado,” he said. “I worked with Diane very closely over all that time, and I couldn’t say so then, but I always felt Diane was by far the best tourism director in the country, and I was working with lots of them.”
Later, when he served on the tourism board from 2016 to 2023, Box saw an entirely different side of Shober.
“She was the director when we were finally able to get the lodging tax to create a permanent source of funding for tourism promotion, rather than the general fund,” he said. “That was a hard fight, and she put up with a lot of abuse.”
Lodging taxes have been a big win for Wyoming tourism, giving it the money to really drive its growth, Box added.
“There were those who, especially in the Legislature, kind of think that tourism isn’t a real industry,” Box said. “But even they would have to admire her passion when she was in there with people fighting for budgets and giving them the information.”
State Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said what impresses him about Shober is her singular focus.
“We were moving in a great direction under Gene Bryan, and she just put it into hyper speed,” he said, referring to her predecessor. “And, working with the boards and directors, she and they have worked with a singular focus that has moved Wyoming tourism to what it is today, our second largest industry.”
The bar, Gierau added, is phenomenally high for her successor.
“It’s going to be a legacy to build on,” he said. “And that legacy is not just in the numbers, which are overwhelming and speak for themselves. The real legacy is all the people around her. The team that she has put together is indicative of the work she’s done. It’s a great team, and they’re going to be able to carry on.”
Longest Serving Tourism Director
The longevity of Shober’s career is unusual, said Tucker Fagan, who helped hire Shober when he was CEO of the Wyoming Business Council.
“Economic development, tourism and chamber of commerce directors — the duration of those jobs is normally just a couple of years,” he said. “But Diane understood what makes Wyoming tick. Coming from up there north of Sheridan off a ranch and then going to Chicago and working there and really understanding marketing, she did an awesome job.”
Fagan said choosing her was a “no-brainer” for him.
“Lynn Birleffi, who was head of a tourism marketing group, was key, and Gene Bryan, who was head of tourism at the time, he was four-square behind her,” Fagan said. “When you talk about tourism, they were the king and queen of tourism to me.
“So, I’m a guy going, ‘OK I gotta replace this person in tourism and I’m getting the absolute titans of the tourism industry telling me she’s the one.’ So, it was an easy decision for me.”
Fagan soon learned that Shober had a unique ability to gain the upper hand.
“When you did your budget, you’d always send it over to the budget office and then you’d have meeting with the governor,” he recalled. “And I used to fight over this, this and this (in her budget), but Governor Freudenthal would say, ‘Give her everything she wants.’ I’d say, ‘Wait a minute, you gotta make her fight for one,’ and he goes, ‘No I don’t.’”
In the years since his retirement, Fagan has continued to follow Shober’s progress and has been amazed.
“They all know her in Afton, in Alpine, in Evanston, they all know Diane,” he said. “And they know that she is marketing the state and not prioritizing these guys over those.
“And then just the fact that she’s gone this long. Who else in state government has lasted this long? Nobody. I did nine years, and people looked at me like how the hell did you do that? Diane is double that.”
The GOAT
Bryan told Cowboy State Daily he had tried to hire Shober twice before and continues to be impressed with her.
“She’s the longest serving travel director the state’s ever had,” he said. “The current term for something like that is the GOAT, the greatest of all time. And I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind that Diane has filled that role for the last 20-plus years.”
Bryan said he was, at the time of Shober’s hiring, a member on Freudenthal’s newly reconstituted Wyoming tourism board. He and Fagan interviewed three candidates for the job, including Shober.
“But there was no question, if we could get her, that she was going to be the one,” he said.
One of the things that has impressed him the most over the years is how quickly Shober has adapted to changing technology.
“When I was state travel director, we probably had about six or seven different ways of reaching the traveling public,” he said. “We had print advertising, we had radio, television, word of mouth — that was about it.
“But since Diane has come on board, I would probably grossly underestimate it, but I’m guessing there are more than 50 different platforms now to reach the traveling public. And under her guidance, I think the Wyoming tourism Office has done a superb, if not the very best job, of staying on top of that whole technology thing.”
Her ability to sell Wyoming on the national scene, as well as within the state, is also impressive.
“Her counsel is sought on the national scene,” he said. “That speaks well for the least populous state in the union. Wyoming has been very fortunate since the days of Frank Norris Jr. and Randy Wagner and now Diane. There have been some real giants in that chair, and she’s certainly one of them.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
