Georgia's new Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act took effect July 1, requiring every on-site hotel employee in the state to complete annual awareness training. IHG Hotels & Resorts has operated its Americas headquarters in Dunwoody for more than 30 years, was already ahead of the mandate.

IHG joined a coalition with Wellspring Living and Tapestri that trained more than 5,000 people at 11 Atlanta locations between March and June 2026 as part of a trafficking-prevention push tied to the FIFA World Cup. The company is listed as a major partner on Wellspring Living's website alongside Delta Air Lines and UPS.

Colin Macdonald, IHG's senior vice president and managing director of franchise operations for the U.S. and Canada, said "hotels sometimes attract bad actors, and IHG sees it as their duty to make sure staff are trained to spot it."

Macdonald oversees roughly 4,300 franchise hotels across 21 brands from the Dunwoody office, where approximately 1,300 corporate employees work daily, according to the company. That makes IHG one of the city's largest private employers.

The new state law, SB570, was signed Monday, May 11, 2026. Training must be developed or approved by the Georgia attorney general's office in consultation with the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association. Penalties for willful violations start at $500 and rise to $2,000 for repeat offenses.

Parade sponsorship

IHG also stepped into local civic life Saturday, July 4, as the sole platinum sponsor of Dunwoody's 50th anniversary Fourth of July Parade. Macdonald said the idea came from IHG colleague Dan Klein, a Dunwoody resident who pitched the sponsorship about six months before the event.

Macdonald, who has been with IHG for 12 years, said the company's local profile has grown alongside its brand count. When he started, he recalled, "you'd say you worked at IHG and get a blank stare back." The portfolio has since doubled from 10 to 21 brands.

IHG operates five hotels in the Dunwoody area and about 80 across metro Atlanta. Its CEO, Jolyon Bulley, serves on the Atlanta Committee for Progress, and SVP of Communications Tom Curry sits on the Metro Atlanta Chamber board.

No new development or expansion plans for the Ravinia campus have been publicly announced.