Kerasotes Showplace Theatres chairman and CEO Tony Kerasotes and president and COO Dean Kerasotes will be honoured as 2009 ShoWesters Of The Year in Las Vegas on March 31.

Tony Kerasotes has more than 40 years of experience in exhibition and sits on the executive committee of the National Association Of Theatre Owners. Dean Kerasotes has 25 years of experience with Kerasotes Theatres and is also active in the National Association Of Theatre Owners and NATO of Illinois.

The company was founded as Kerasotes Theatres in 1909 when Tony and Dean's grandfather Gus opened his first storefront nickleoden in Springfield, Illinois. By the early 1980s the company operated 220 screens in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri and in 1985 it split in two when Louis Kerasotes and two of his brothers retained Kerasotes Theatres with 145 screens.

In 1999 the company headquarters relocated to Chicago and four years later was renamed Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres when Providence Equity Partners invested in the company, which currently operates 95 theatres with 935 screens and is the seventh largest exhibitor in the US.

ShoWest 2009 runs from March 31-April 2.