Billy and Rosemary Vassiliadis have given significant personal and professional time and resources to improve the lives of children in Nevada. Billy Vassiliadis' support of numerous bond campaigns to generate voter approval for ballot questions resulted in revenue used for the construction of hundreds of public schools. His work led directly to the successful passage of four ballot questions, resulting in the generation of over $6.8 billion used for the construction of 232 schools, the renovation and upgrade of numerous existing schools, and the creation of four new bus yards. Rosemary Vassiliadis has also made a significant impact on Clark County. After serving in city and county finance positions for many years, she was named Clark County Director of Aviation in 2013 and is the first woman to serve in this position.

 

Billy Vassiliadis is CEO and principal of R&R Partners, an international marketing and public relations firm headquartered here in Las Vegas, NV. He has served as an adviser for a number of Democratic political candidates and elected officials including Democratic President Barack Obama and Democratic U.S. Senator Harry Reid.

 

Career

 

Billy Vassiliadis hails from Chicago, Ill., and relocated to Las Vegas, NV., during the 1970s. He attended the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where he became involved in Democratic politics and volunteered on political campaigns. In 1982, Vassiliadis served as campaign manager during John Moran's successful race for Clark County sheriff. Following the race, Vassiliadis joined R&R Partners, an international marketing and public relations firm. Besides public relations and advertising, the firm provides government affairs and political consulting services. Vassiliadis bought the firm in 1994.

Vassiliadis served as an adviser to former Democratic President Bill Clinton. He ran the successful 1990 and 1994 campaigns of former Democratic Governor of Nevada Bob Miller and worked as an adviser during Democratic President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential primary campaign. In 2010, Vassiliadis served as an adviser during Democratic U.S. Senator Harry Reid's re-election campaign.

In addition to political candidates and elected officials, Vassiliadis' corporate clients at R&R Partners have included PepsiCo, America West Airlines, Boeing and Nikon. Government clients have included the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Utah Highway Safety and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

In 2013, ​Campaigns & Elections magazine named Vassiliadis to the Influencers 500—a list of key Democratic and Republican political influencers in each state—for his work in Democratic Nevada politics.

 

Rosemary A. Vassiliadis was named Clark County Director of Aviation in March 2013. She had previously served as Deputy Director of Aviation since December 1997. She oversees all operations at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, as well as general aviation airports in North Las Vegas, Henderson, Jean and Overton, Nevada.

​

Vassiliadis is the 11th person to lead Clark County’s aviation system since McCarran was established in 1948, and is the first woman to serve as Director. She manages a staff of nearly 1,500 employees, ensuring that operational plans are efficiently and effectively implemented for an airport system that directly employs more than 16,000 people.

​

McCarran annually ranks among the world’s busiest airports, serving more than 45 million passengers in 2015. Under Vassiliadis’ leadership, the airport has developed an industry-leading security program while maintaining a strong commitment to world-class customer service – an endeavor that earned McCarran the third highest ranking in the J.D. Power 2015 North America Airport Satisfaction Study.

​

Vassiliadis works with several national organizations that are critical to the U.S. and global travel industries. She was recently appointed to the Executive Board of the American Association of Airport Executives, and since February 2011, she has been an Executive Board Member of the U.S. Travel Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that promotes American travel interests both domestically and worldwide. Additionally, Vassiliadis serves as an advisory board member for the International Aviation Law Institute, a premier source for research, analysis, and study of international aviation law and policy based out of the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago.

​

Closer to home, Vassiliadis serves as a technical advisor to the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee, a group created by Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to bring key community leaders and stakeholders together to identify and prioritize tourism improvement projects in southern Nevada and explore potential funding mechanisms to support new tourism-related initiatives. In 2011 Governor Sandoval appointed Vassiliadis a member of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, which is responsible for setting goals and programs to counteract or prevent potential acts of terrorism or related emergencies; she had previously served in this role from August 2004 through July 2007. Vassiliadis is also a member of the Las Vegas Advisory Council of the United Service Organization (USO), and is proud that McCarran now has a USO lounge in each of its terminals.

​

Vassiliadis came to the Department of Aviation from the Clark County Department of Finance, where she amassed 16 years of progressive government experience. As director of finance for Clark County, she was responsible for a $2.2 billion operating budget and a $2.4 billion capital improvement plan. Before joining Clark County, she worked for the City of Las Vegas Finance Department, beginning as a financial analyst and progressing to manager of finance and budget.

​

A native of Chicago, Vassiliadis earned a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from DePaul University. She and her husband have two children and enjoy a variety of community activities.