Nina Kohler takes the hospitality chief executive role at Kohler Co.
Kohler Co. named Nina Kohler chief executive officer – hospitality on 13 October 2026. The appointment took effect immediately. She leads strategy, growth, talent and guest experience across Kohler, Wisconsin; St. Andrews, Scotland; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Chicago, Illinois.
The appointment covers a multi-year investment in the company's Wisconsin destination. The programme expands accommodations, wellness, golf, dining and recreation.
Four years as adviser, then the chief executive seat
Nina Kohler spent the past four years as a consultant and strategic advisor to Kohler Hospitality. She worked with the leadership team on strategy, brand positioning, design and guest experience. Kohler Co. said the work helped shape the business's long-term direction and its modernization. The company reported consecutive years of record performance in 2024 and 2025.
"Kohler Hospitality gives people the opportunity to experience our company's commitment to design and craftsmanship firsthand," said David Kohler, chair and chief executive officer of Kohler Co. "Nina has played an important role in shaping the direction of this business and the investments now taking place."
What the Wisconsin programme has covered
Kohler renovated the Forbes Five-Star Kohler Waters Spa. The Carriage House became an adults-only wellness retreat with 55 redesigned guest rooms. Woodlake Market reopened as a marketplace and food hall with regional food and Wisconsin makers.
The same group includes The Serve, a year-round racquet sports complex with indoor pickleball, outdoor platform tennis and a lounge. Kohler lists six indoor pickleball courts and two heated platform tennis courts at The Serve, with construction starting in October 2025 and an opening planned for summer 2026.
The next phase of construction at the destination
The Inn on Woodlake expansion and renovation adds 66 guest rooms and suites. The property stays open through construction, and Kohler plans completion for June 2027.
Bucks & Birdies is the planned golf and entertainment venue. It combines interactive golf and racing simulators, duckpin bowling, dining and social spaces.
Purebred Farm is a 14-hole golf course west of Blackwolf Run. The layout is walking only and multi-loop, designed with King Collins Dormer. Ground broke in October 2025. The name recalls the former Kohler Farms cattle operation.
The remit and the people around it
As chief executive officer, Nina Kohler works with the hospitality leadership team to oversee the investments, the performance and the long-term direction of the portfolio. Stephen Beaumont is president of Kohler Hospitality. The announcement names no reporting line beyond that collaboration.
Nina Kohler also holds roles outside the company. She is a board member of Old Course Ltd., chair of PGA REACH, the PGA of America's philanthropic arm, a trustee of Vanderbilt University, and a director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sheboygan County.
The portfolio she inherits
Kohler Hospitality includes The American Club and the championship golf venues Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run. The Inn on Woodlake in the Village of Kohler is a three-diamond property. LODGE KOHLER, in Green Bay's Titletown entertainment district, is a four-diamond property.
A sister property, the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa, sits in St. Andrews, Scotland, beside the 17th fairway of the Road Hole. Kohler Waters Spa holds the only five-star spa rating in Wisconsin and has four further locations in St. Andrews, Chicagoland and Green Bay. The resort carries 12 dining establishments, from the Immigrant Restaurant and Winery Bar to pub fare at The Horse & Plow and River Wildlife beside the Sheboygan River.
The American Club opened in 1918 as housing for immigrant employees of Kohler Co. Herbert V. Kohler Jr. reopened it as a resort hotel in 1981. Herb Kohler built The Straits and The Irish at Whistling Straits, The River and Meadow Valleys at Blackwolf Run, and the 10-hole par-three Baths of Blackwolf Run. The Straits has hosted three PGA Championships and the 43rd Ryder Cup in 2021.
Kohler Co.'s own profile places the resort in the Village of Kohler, one hour south of Green Bay, one hour north of Milwaukee and two and a half hours north of Chicago, off I-43. Kohler Co. was founded in 1873 and is headquartered in Kohler, Wisconsin. David Kohler represents the fourth generation of Kohler family leadership.
"I have called this community home for more than thirty years, and I have never thought of Kohler as a destination apart from the village around it," Nina Kohler said. "People come here for a sense of place — the golf, the water, the table, the landscape, and the feeling of being gathered well. Our opportunity is not simply to add more. It is to give people enduring reasons to return, and to be as careful about what we preserve as about what we add. That is the work I am honored to lead."