GREENSBORO, N.C. — Executive vice president for hospitality at Koury Corp. Mo Milani died over the weekend, according to the Triad Business Journal.
The newspaper reported Milani died at the Greensboro-based real estate company unexpectedly.
The Triad Business Journal said he died while on site at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel & Koury Convention Center.
Koury Corp.'s president Richard Vanore said the death came as a shock and the cause of death is unknown.
“I think the family is still trying to understand that. It was sudden and unexpected,” Vanore said.
According to the Triad Business Journal, Milani joined Koury Corp. in 1980, after earning his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from NC A&T State University after immigrating to the U.S. from Iran.
Milani worked his way up through the company and helped set the vision for and build the hospitality operations for the company, which was founded by the late Joe Koury in 1952, according to the newspaper.
Milani was a key part not just in the Koury Convention Center that opened in the early 1990s, but also in the decades-long planning of Grandover Resort, which opened in the late 1990s.
“He was like a son to Joe,” Vanore said. “He and Joe quickly became really good friends, and he was no doubt a key player in the success of that property (Grandover) and our company. He was like a father figure to everyone. He mentored all of us. It’s unreal the people he’s touched.”
Among Milani’s survivors are his wife, Tammy, and children, Cameron, Oliver and Sahar.