Chris Anderson is a professor at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on the faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Professor Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works in the application and development of revenue management across numerous industry types, including hotels, airlines, and rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Professor Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Anderson teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
General Managers ProgramOnline Courses and On-Campus Immersion Experience
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Overview and Courses
Running for over 30 years, the General Managers Program is the world’s premiere transformational learning experience for hotel general managers and their immediate successors. As an experienced hospitality professional, you know that the industry is constantly evolving. To be successful, you must lead your team with purpose, embrace the industry’s evolutionary path, and seek opportunities to keep your organization at the forefront. Through GMP, you will hone strategic thinking skills, explore how to create value, and plan for action to tackle today’s most urgent business challenges and opportunities.
The program consists of two learning modalities. First, you’ll complete two live virtual courses, choosing topics that best meet your individual development goals. Topics are offered monthly and will be led by Cornell University faculty experts. Each course will include four 3-hour sessions and be limited to 35 participants to ensure high levels of engagement and networking.
Next, you will come to Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, New York to complete the program. The on-campus experience kicks off with a reception and orientation dinner, followed by five days of intensive, interactive, and engaged learning with peers from around the world. Led by senior Cornell faculty, you’ll take on strategic property-level issues with depth and precision. You’ll concentrate on hotel management issues and collaborate to expand the foundation of your knowledge, broaden your viewpoint, and produce new solutions to the challenges you face. As business transcends continental boundaries, so do we at Cornell. Through our interactive program, participants dissect theory-based ideas and learning, then relate these to current issues in the industry.
If you’re looking for specific, applicable, and workable solutions to your real-time issues and demands, this program offers a management and strategic-thinking toolkit designed to take your property to the next level.
Course list
Innovation is a leading factor in gaining a competitive advantage for companies around the world, particularly for hospitality organizations as they compete with increased globalization and continuous market and technological change. In this course, you will discover best practices for guiding an organization through the strategic innovation process in order to reinvigorate and renew itself, its markets, or its industries. You will identify several different innovation processes and explore how they can be applied in established companies. You will also examine innovation from the unique perspective of the hospitality industry and delve into real-world case studies featuring global companies that made major changes to product offerings and business model innovations. By the end of this course, you'll have acquired valuable foundational knowledge and practical applied strategies that will allow you to create new innovation opportunities within your organization.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- What Makes Service-Based Innovation Unique
- Wednesday, March 5, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- The Workforce as a Key Element
- Wednesday, March 12, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Value Proposition Design
- Wednesday, March 19, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Business Model Innovation
- Wednesday, March 26, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
General managers face an array of complex communication challenges. This program provides both seasoned and new GMs with actionable communication strategies they can use at the property level and when communicating to ownership groups. Participants will better understand their own communication style, learn professional storytelling frameworks, polish their presentation skills, and practice giving and receiving constructive feedback. Through interactive lectures and engaging activities, you'll explore how to enhance your leadership presence and communication effectiveness.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- Improving Your Personal Effectiveness
- Monday, November 4, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Presenting Your Ideas With Clarity
- Wednesday, November 6, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Preparing Professional Slide Decks and Reports
- Monday, November 11, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Giving and Receiving Feedback Successfully
- Wednesday, November 13, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
An increasingly complex global business environment requires general managers to think strategically to make smarter business decisions. This program offers participants innovative, practical, and profitable solutions for dealing with global trends in order to improve revenue, profit, and customer loyalty. Through presentations, discussions, case studies, and real-life examples, you'll explore the latest practical and fast-paced lessons in the application of strategic thinking to challenges and opportunities facing the hospitality industry. “Best in the business” (and some worst!) case studies and examples will be drawn from businesses worldwide. At the end of this program, you can expect to take away ideas for implementation in your own business.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- The Big Picture: Explore the key trends affecting hospitality and leverage them into better business practices
- Monday, October 7, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
- Wednesday, April 9, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Analysis and Application: Identify the most important trends for you and define action steps to test on your organization
- Wednesday, October 9, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
- Wednesday, April 16, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Presentations, Discussion, and a Plan of Action (Part I): Present your action plan and discuss actionable business ideas
- Monday, October 28, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
- Wednesday, April 23, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Presentations, Discussion, and a Plan of Action (Part II): Present your action plan and discuss actionable business ideas
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
- Wednesday, April 30, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Traditional hotel pricing hinges on ensuring rooms are available for late-arriving, higher-yielding guests while building base demand with other consumer segments through the use of historic demand patterns. Given today's online and connected traveler, revenue management needs to rely less on historic demand patterns, focusing instead on pricing by capitalizing on digital marketing opportunities to ensure hotels drive demand while avoiding rate dilution through excessive discounting actions. Using a strategic pricing simulation, you'll develop an understanding of the interplay between pricing and digital marketing and refocus RM on profit versus revenue.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- The State of Revenue Management Today
- Wednesday, April 10, 2024: 10:30am - 1:30pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Competitive Pricing
- Friday, April 12, 2024: 10:30am - 1:30pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Digital Marketing With Google, Meta, and OTAs
- Wednesday, April 17, 2024: 10:30am - 1:30pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Profit Optimization Through Integrated Marketing and Pricing
- Wednesday, April 24, 2024: 10:30am - 1:30pm (ET)
The hospitality industry has always been dynamic, whether it's the rise of new distribution channels in the digital economy or new lodging products in the sharing economy. But the COVID-19 economy has accelerated transformation in ways that even the most seasoned hospitality leaders could never have foreseen. The changes wrought by the pandemic have strained the hospitality industry — but also revealed opportunities for those organizations that are nimble and innovative. This mini-program looks toward a positive future for hospitality and the role marketing will play in creating and communicating value for tomorrow's hospitality consumers.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- The New Travel Consumer: Changing consumer behaviors and expectations
- Tuesday, December 3, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Innovation in Hospitality to Drive Demand: Explore product and service changes necessitated by COVID-19
- Thursday, December 5, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Marketing to the New Travel Consumer: Examine new digital marketing approaches through conversation and virtual experiences
- Tuesday, December 10, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Market Planning for Uncertain Times: Develop a roadmap for hospitality marketing that's adaptable for reopening and recovery stages
- Thursday, December 12, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
This program focuses on how to use the tools of finance to evaluate capital investment ideas and sell them to hotels owners and brands. We begin by identifying capital investment opportunities in your property. We then assess the attractiveness of capital investment projects using both simple and sophisticated financial approaches. Finally, we demonstrate ways to use financial analysis to appeal to owners, brands, and other stakeholders.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- Uncovering the Value in Capital Investments
- Wednesday, May 7, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Using Financial Acumen to Sell Your Investment Ideas
- Wednesday, May 14, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Optimizing Recurring Investments
- Wednesday, May 21, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Putting It All Together and Selling Ideas to Stakeholders
- Wednesday, May 28, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
The way consumers interact and engage with food both at home and out in the world is rapidly evolving. Consumers are looking at food as more than just something to eat: It's a way of life, an expression of values and identity, and a means for engaging with larger social and cultural concerns. This course will offer insights into changing consumer food trends across market segments. You'll explore the future of menus and restaurants as well as the ways in which those trends and changes inform how you can meet the needs of your current and future guests.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- Exploring Consumer Food Trends
- Wednesday, September 4, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Tracking Industry Adaptations
- Wednesday, September 11, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Aligning With Consumer Identities and Communities
- Wednesday, September 18, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Looking Internally
- Wednesday, September 25, 2024: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Every day we see news articles highlighting the power of AI - how should hospitality organizations be leveraging AIs' power to their operations?. This live virtual course provides a deep dive into artificial intelligence and automation. The business of hospitality is increasingly data rich, yet this data comes from a variety of sources which need to be updated on a regular basis - AI can help. With a focus on streamlining tasks, automating data-driven decision making, harnessing the power of AI in daily communications, this course provides an overview of machine learning, AI, and automation, highlighting their key differences as well as their opportunities through use cases.
The course will provide an overview into AI, Machine Learning more broadly and the use of automation to streamline tasks and introduce AI into daily decision making.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Session 1:
- Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
- Wednesday, February 5, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 2:
- Building AI-Assisted Writing Skills
- Wednesday, February 12, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 3:
- Enhancing Hospitality Communication with Use Cases
- Wednesday, February 19, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
Session 4:
- Integrating Automation and AI into Hospitality Decision Making
- Wednesday, February 26, 2025: 10am - 1pm (ET)
The General Managers Program Capstone is the on-campus component that results in the completion of this program. It takes place twice annually: in January and in June at the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, NY, at the renowned Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration. The next two sets of program dates are January 12-17, 2025 and June 15 - 20, 2025 (choose one option).
Over five intensive days, you will tackle hotel management issues and collaborate with a network of peers to expand the foundation of your hospitality knowledge. You'll hone your strategic thinking skills to take on today's most urgent business challenges and opportunities.
SCHEDULE
- Day 1 (6:00pm - 9:00pm)
- Opening Reception and Orientation Dinner
- Statler Hotel, Cornell School of Hotel Administration
- Day 2 (8:30am - 5:00pm)
- Strategizing for Your Success: A Focus on Your Leadership (Kate Walsh)
- In this session, you'll strategically plan for your success as a leader. Through experiential activities, personal assessments, and interactive feedback, you'll enhance your understanding of your individualized leadership approach and strengthen your ability to lead, inspire, and build success with others in your hospitality organization. This includes the key role you play in shaping a high-performance culture for your team. You'll also review ways to inspire your service-level staff through developing the leadership skills of your direct reports. Finally, you'll explore ways to leave your mark as the leader.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- Truths and myths about leadership
- The role of emotional intelligence
- How to motivate both outstanding and challenging employees to higher levels of performance
- How to turn work groups into inspired teams
- The power of organizational culture
- Creating your leadership brand
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Assess the strengths that are key to your personalized approach as a leader
- Define and practice applying motivational concepts and techniques to draw exceptional performances from others
- Strengthen your ability to lead all types of employees at the individual, group, and team levels
- Explore how to use work values and the organization's culture to create sustained, enhanced levels of performance
- Strategizing for Your Success: A Focus on Your Leadership (Kate Walsh)
- DAY 3 (8:30am - 5:00pm)
- Creating Customized HR Solutions (J. Bruce Tracey)
- This session will provide you with an opportunity to develop customized, property-specific solutions to address top HR challenges. Based on information generated from a comprehensive pre-session HR audit, you will engage in hands-on development activities that can be used to refine and/or create new HR policies, practices, and procedures that can be implemented immediately. The development process will incorporate industry best practices and thought leadership, and utilize peer-based feedback and assessment to ensure that the solutions are strategically aligned and operationally actionable.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- HR value creation
- Major functional HR roles
- HR best practices
- Strategic and operational HR assessment
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Discuss current challenges facing hospitality HR
- Develop context-specific solutions for HR challenges
- Design a process for guiding continuous HR improvement
- Create an action plan for implementation of new ideas
- Creating Customized HR Solutions (J. Bruce Tracey)
- DAY 4 (8:30am - 5:00pm)
- Co-Creating Value Through Customer-Centered Brand Marketing (Robert Kwortnik)
- Marketing — more than any other business function — creates value by driving demand to connect consumers to hospitality companies. Marketing identifies profitable target markets. Marketing crafts competitive positioning strategies and articulates the brand promise. Marketing listens to the voice of the customer to guide service experience design, value co-creation with customers, and measurement of key customer outcomes such as satisfaction, engagement, and advocacy. It is therefore critical to understand how customer-centered brand marketing integrates the activities of hospitality organizations to create value for guests — and for the business.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- Brand-Based Strategic Marketing
- Identifying, understanding, and targeting profitable market segments
- Mining marketing information from customers, competitors, and the marketing environment
- Driving visible value through service innovation
- Building experiential brands that align the people, processes, and physical evidence strategies of the hospitality organization
- Communicating Brand Value Through Digital Marketing
- Articulating brand promises through integrated marketing communications
- Driving demand and conversions with website optimization
- Co-creating content that builds customer engagement
- Monitoring the return on digital marketing investments
- Brand-Based Strategic Marketing
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Adopt a customer-centered, strategic branding orientation
- Develop a keen sense for how brand marketing influences nearly every aspect of hospitality experience production
- Acquire a new lens for seeing how guests perceive the hospitality experience
- Enhance guest loyalty by communicating the guest experience through digital media channels such as dynamic websites, content-fueled social media, and branded video
- Co-Creating Value Through Customer-Centered Brand Marketing (Robert Kwortnik)
- Day 5 (8:30am - 5:00pm)
- Financial Management for Value Creation (Steven A. Carvell)
- To be successful, general managers must maintain positive working relationships with owners and the owners' representatives. In this session, you'll learn how to understand the hotel and its management from the owner's perspective. The first step in this process is to understand value creation from the standpoint of the various stakeholders in a hotel. You'll then explore specifically how owner objectives within the framework of value creation differ from those of the brand, the guest, and the associates, among others. You'll define and identify how to maximize the value of a hotel for the owner by understanding the interplay between the operating and real estate investment within a risk-return environment as well as how PIP and other property-level investment plans should be viewed when considering the owner's perspective. You'll discuss various owner/manager structural relationships and learn about the pros and cons of each from the owner's perspective. You'll examine conceptual and specific examples of measuring and creating value for the owner using operational benchmarking, space utilization, and the interplay of pricing and frequent-stay programs. You'll explore how an individual hotel's value can be impacted from the owner's perspective and how to reallocate resources within a hotel company to maximize the property's ability to create value.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- Defining value from a stakeholder perspective
- The owner's perspective of value creation
- Agency conflict issues within the hotel
- Value measurement and creation from the owner's perspective
- How the hotel can create value for the owner
- Owner's investments in a competitive capital environment
- The owner's view of operations and real estate returns
- Measuring hotel performance through operational benchmarking
- Space utilization and value creation for the owner
- Value to owner (VTO) analysis
- Benchmarking to improve VTO
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Explore the competing interests within a hotel to understand the concept of value creation from each stakeholder's perspective
- Measure the creation of value for a hotel as well as how to enhance the hotel's ability to create value
- Discover how the hotel's operations and real estate interact to enhance the value proposition within the hotel
- Examine the hotel from the perspective of a stand-alone investment as well as from a portfolio perspective
- Financial Management for Value Creation (Steven A. Carvell)
- Day 6
- 8:30am - 12:00pm
- Sustainable Hospitality (Jeanne Varney)
- Sustainability is a broad reaching topic and may be overwhelming at times. Having an organized plan will drive progress, save money, and improve customer and associate satisfaction.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- Organizing sustainability initiatives
- Identifying priority areas that GMs need to focus on today
- Communicating sustainability initiatives to the customer
- Identifying resources (free!) that make doing the work effective, efficient and easier
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Discuss sustainability best practices and challenges with your peers
- Collect and review resources that will provide a roadmap for execution
- Enhance sustainability initiative success at your property
- Sustainable Hospitality (Jeanne Varney)
- 1:00pm - 4:30pm
- Leadership and Action Planning (Rob Kwortnik, with Chris Anderson and Andrew Quagliata)
- In this final session of the General Managers Program, you will synthesize the tools, concepts, best practices, and common challenges shared throughout the week with professors and peers, and develop a concrete action plan to bring the Cornell experience back to your organization. You'll identify specific opportunities to apply your learning to create both immediate and long-lasting positive impact for your enterprise, and your leadership. You will discuss the importance of lifelong connections with your GMP colleagues and identify networking opportunities to keep the conversations going.
- TOPICS INCLUDE
- Applying GMP course concepts to your unique set of goals and challenges
- Leading through change both as change agent and as a leader confronting change
- Planning for disruption - how artificial intelligence will affect marketing, operations, and leadership
- Crafting your own career fulfillment and future success
- WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Reflection of integrated course concepts for your leadership
- Vision refinement for your enterprise
- Proactive leadership in dynamic environments
- Action-planning and outcomes-based decision-making
- Development of a nimble and resilient organization
- Leadership and Action Planning (Rob Kwortnik, with Chris Anderson and Andrew Quagliata)
- 6:30pm - 9:00pm Reception and Celebration Dinner
- 8:30am - 12:00pm
How It Works
Ithaca, NY
Ithaca, NY
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Faculty Authors
Steven Carvell joined the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s finance faculty in 1986 and is currently a Professor of Finance in the SC Johnson College of Business. Over the past 33 years, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Capital Budgeting, Financial Strategy, and Investments. Dr. Carvell has also been an active teacher in executive education since 1990, working with almost every major domestic and international hotel company to create custom courses for hotel executives with companies like Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental Hotel Group, Taj Hotels, Jumeirah, Accor, Sol Melia, Le Meridien, Shangri La, and Peninsula. Dr. Carvell has also authored eight distance-learning courses through eCornell that are among the most widely demanded courses offered. He has held academic leadership positions at the School of Hotel Administration since 1999, serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007 to 2016 and the Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Entrepreneurship from 2013 to 2016.
Dr. Carvell has published numerous articles in academic and professional journals, including the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, the Harvard Business Review, and the Cornell Quarterly, and he is the co-author of “In the Shadows of Wall Street.” His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Financial World, and Leaders. Dr. Carvell has recently finished a major project designed to identify the determinants of hotel demand for U.S. hotels and another on economic and capital market antecedents of venture capital commitments. He is currently working on a project to disaggregate hotel room rates within urban markets and another to determine the risk-return characteristics of hotel room rates in major U.S. markets. Dr. Carvell is also involved with evaluating the effectiveness of hotel company business strategies using strategic benchmarking and economic value-added analysis.
Dr. Carvell has worked for professional money managers in the area of applied strategy in the equity market and served as a consultant to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 stock market crash. His consulting interests include valuation and risk analysis in feasibility studies, hotel debt capacity, strategic benchmarking, and corporate and financial strategy.
Chekitan Dev is an internationally renowned scholar and thought leader on marketing and branding in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. As an expert witness, he has testified in deposition, at trial, and at arbitration in numerous hospitality-related matters, both in the United States and internationally, including multiple cases involving hotel owner–brand relationships and the online travel industry.
Professor Dev has consulted on marketing and branding to major corporations. He has more than 40 years of experience analyzing an array of issues involving hotels, travel, and tourism. Professor Dev’s recent research has focused on how branding and rebranding affect both public perception and profitability in the hospitality industry. In particular, he has assessed key drivers of profitability and customer loyalty, including branding, digital marketing, and consumer service. Professor Dev has also evaluated brand portfolio strategy in the context of hotel mergers.
An award-winning author, Professor Dev wrote “Hospitality Branding” (Cornell University Press), as well as over 100 articles in leading academic and practitioner journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Harvard Business Review. He has coauthored multiple case studies for Harvard Business School and in 2019 received the overall winner award for best case study from the Case Centre at the Cranfield School of Management (UK). The American Marketing Association recognized Professor Dev and his coauthors as finalists for the Best Service Research Paper of the Year Award for their article “Return on Service Amenities” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2017).
Professor Dev is a sought-after commentator on hospitality trends. He has been interviewed numerous times in the mainstream media, and his research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and the International Herald Tribune, among others. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected Professor Dev as one of the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Sales and Marketing.”
At Cornell’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Dev teaches courses on brand and marketing management.
Rob Kwortnik, Associate Professor of Services Marketing, joined Cornell’s faculty after earning his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University in 2003. He also earned a B.A. in Journalism from Temple and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Professor Kwortnik’s research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to service experience management. He has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, among others. He has been honored eight times as a Teacher of the Year by students at the School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his career in academics, Professor Kwortnik held several professional positions in marketing and was a travel industry consultant. He is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.
Andrew Quagliata is a Senior Lecturer in Management Communication at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Quagliata teaches courses in business writing, persuasive communication, entrepreneurial communication, and real estate communication. He engages with industry by speaking and delivering workshops on topics related to interpersonal communication, presentation skills, workplace writing, relationship building, storytelling, and influence. Professor Quagliata holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the University at Buffalo. Prior to his arrival at Cornell, he held professional positions in finance and higher education.
Neil Tarallo is a senior lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. He currently serves as the director of the Cornell University Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Disabled Veterans (EBV), which offers entrepreneurship education to post 9/11 veterans and as the director (interim) of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship. He has also served as the curriculum lead and co-PI for the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Veteran Business Development’s boots2business program.
As an entrepreneur, Tarallo has owned and operated companies in the fields of photographic retail and quick printing. He has also purchased, rehabilitated, and sold numerous businesses. Tarallo currently has an active consulting practice as well a commercial real estate development and management company. He is also member of a venture capital partnership and an active angel investor.
A seasoned active entrepreneur, academic, and consultant with a proven track record of bringing real world experiences to students, veterans, and corporate/non-profit clients internationally in the classroom, online, and through seminars.
”I teach and have created a broad spectrum of entrepreneurship courses for delivery in the classroom and online with significant experience developing academic entrepreneurship programs, including centers and institutes, dating back to 1994. Teaching experiences in Djibouti (Africa), South Africa, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Japan have given me the opportunity to observe entrepreneurship in cultures and economies outside of the United States. These experiences have broadened my entrepreneurial repertoire in the classroom and in consulting engagements.
These experiences have also helped me to understand the importance of aggregating theory and practice in the classroom. I have found that by designing a curriculum rich in experiential learning opportunities and engaging students in a real world application of knowledge, I am able to provide a more impactful learning experience that will also translate into their professional lives.
Along the way I have developed expertise in establishing entrepreneurial behavior, culture, mindset, and structure for existing corporations/organizations with over 20 years’ experience applying these skills in corporate and academic environments as an entrepreneur and consultant. When I am not teaching, I work with corporations and non-profits to help them create new markets through value proposition design, customer experience mapping, and business model evolution.”
Kate Walsh is Dean of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration and E. M. Statler Professor. A professor of management, Dean Walsh has been a member of the Hotel School’s faculty since 2000. She received her Ph.D. from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and her MPS degree from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fairfield University.
Dean Walsh’s primary research is in identity, leadership, and career development. She also conducts research examining the impact of strategic human capital investments. In addition to contributing to numerous books, Dean Walsh’s articles have appeared in such outlets as Journal of Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Organization Science, Career Development International, The Service Industries Journal, Trends in Organizational Behavior, Research in Management Consulting, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Learning Organization, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.
Dean Walsh has extensive industry experience. She is the former director of training and development for Nikko Hotels International, corporate training manager for the former Bristol Hotels, and senior auditor for Loews Corporation. Dean Walsh is also a former New York State Certified Public Accountant.
Dean Walsh began her second term as dean on July 2, 2021. Since the beginning of her administration, she has focused on positioning Nolan for the future of hospitality business education as well as contributing to the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. This includes undertaking a comprehensive renewal of the graduate and undergraduate curricula, developing Nolan’s online global presence, launching two new graduate degree programs, and providing thought leadership for the hospitality industry, most notably through the creation of industry-based webinars to guide the industry during the pandemic as well as supporting extensive outreach and engagement through Nolan’s six centers and institutes.
Dean Walsh serves on the boards of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, including serving on its Educational Foundation’s DE&I committee, and Yonsei University’s School of Business.
J. Bruce Tracey is a Professor of Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Professor Tracey has taught courses in human resources management for undergraduate, graduate, and professional audiences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, winning several awards for his efforts. He has conducted research on a wide range of strategic and operational-level HR topics, including the roles and relevance of HR flexibility, the impact of training initiatives on individual and firm performance, employee turnover, employment law, and leadership.
Professor Tracey has presented his work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences, and his research has been published in many of the top-tier discipline and applied outlets, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Research Methods, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law. Professor Tracey’s sponsors for research and consulting include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Hillstone Restaurant Group, and Uno Chicago Grill, and he has been cited in the New York Times, USA Today, Fast Company, and the Orlando Sentinel, among other popular press outlets.
Pamela Moulton is an Associate Professor of Finance at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Her teaching and research interests include financial markets and market microstructure, with a special interest in the role of investors. Her current research focuses on the impact of high-frequency trading on stock performance, the role of designated and voluntary market makers in stock liquidity, and detecting fraud in financial statements. Professor Moulton’s research has been published in several of the leading finance and accounting journals, including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Prior to her academic career, Professor Moulton worked in fixed-income research for more than a dozen years at various Wall Street investment banks, including Deutsche Bank, where she was a managing director and global co-head of relative value research. From 2003 to 2006, she was a managing director and senior economist at the New York Stock Exchange, where she focused on equity market microstructure research. A chartered financial analyst (CFA), Professor Moulton earned her B.S. in economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in finance and MPhil from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. She was previously on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Fordham University.
Lilly Jan is a lecturer of food and beverage at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She brings nearly 15 years of experience in hospitality and foodservice, having worked in restaurants, catering and events, retail, and television production. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Jan was the Director of Culinary Operations for Newbury College in Brookline, Massachusetts. She also served as a faculty member and academic advisor at Newbury College, creating and teaching a range of classes across culinary and hospitality management. Dr, Jan has also taught for Le Cordon Bleu and Boston University.
As a chef, product and recipe developer, and foodservice consultant, Dr. Jan has worked with a variety of food-based businesses, including a food truck, on-demand food delivery, food startup, and retail food stores. She specializes in operations management, focusing on ushering food business concepts to market.
A frequent speaker and media contact on food culture, cooking, and Chinese cuisine, Dr. Jan has been featured in print and radio outlets. She worked on TV production for America’s Test Kitchen and was a regular contributor for WGBH’s Boston Public Radio.
Dr. Jan is a two-time graduate of Boston University in Communications (B.Sc.) and Gastronomy (MLA). She earned her Ph.D. from Iowa State University in hospitality management with a focus on food allergy knowledge and training in ethnic restaurants. Dr. Jan’s research interests include workplace training and education in foodservice, career progression in foodservice, food safety and food allergy in restaurants, and culture and cuisine.
Jeanne Varney is a senior lecturer at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. She is part of the Property Development and Management Department, where she is responsible for the curriculum in Hospitality Facilities Management, Hospitality Asset Management, Sustainable Development, and Introduction to Sustainable Hospitality Principles. In Hospitality Facilities Management, Professor Varney combines the technical facilities curriculum with a practical management perspective. In Hospitality Asset Management, she examines the broad range of issues faced by hotel ownership groups requiring asset management oversight and analyses, as well as how to influence results that meet ownership objectives. In Sustainable Development, Professor Varney leads students through the principles, methodology, and strategic application of green hotel development and practices in an engaged learning environment. In Introduction to Sustainable Hospitality Principles, she guides students through the implementation of tactical green principles, policies, and practices.
Outside Cornell, Professor Varney is a principal with Olive Hospitality Consulting, where she provides practical sustainability solutions to businesses looking to improve the “triple bottom line” for their organizations. She has more than 20 years of real estate, operations, and sustainable hospitality experience. Prior to establishing Olive Hospitality Consulting, Professor Varney was vice president of asset management at Host Hotels and Resorts, administering the full range of ownership responsibilities, including operational and capital expenditure budgeting, ongoing operational reviews, and long-term strategic planning for the properties. She previously held positions with Marriott International Corporate Headquarters and Horwath Landauer Hospitality Consulting, as well as positions with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
In addition to her professional duties, Professor Varney is an international past-president for NEWH, Inc., and a founding member of the NEWH Sustainability Committee. She is also a member of U.S. Green Building Council, Sustainable Hospitality Council, Cornell Real Estate Council, and Cornell Hotel Society. Professor Varney holds an MBA from the George Washington University and a B.S. degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Chris Anderson is a professor at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on the faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Professor Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works in the application and development of revenue management across numerous industry types, including hotels, airlines, and rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Professor Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management and is the regional editor for the International Journal of Revenue Management. At the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Anderson teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.
Steven Carvell joined the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s finance faculty in 1986 and is currently a Professor of Finance in the SC Johnson College of Business. Over the past 33 years, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Capital Budgeting, Financial Strategy, and Investments. Dr. Carvell has also been an active teacher in executive education since 1990, working with almost every major domestic and international hotel company to create custom courses for hotel executives with companies like Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental Hotel Group, Taj Hotels, Jumeirah, Accor, Sol Melia, Le Meridien, Shangri La, and Peninsula. Dr. Carvell has also authored eight distance-learning courses through eCornell that are among the most widely demanded courses offered. He has held academic leadership positions at the School of Hotel Administration since 1999, serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2007 to 2016 and the Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Entrepreneurship from 2013 to 2016.
Dr. Carvell has published numerous articles in academic and professional journals, including the Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, the Harvard Business Review, and the Cornell Quarterly, and he is the co-author of “In the Shadows of Wall Street.” His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Financial World, and Leaders. Dr. Carvell has recently finished a major project designed to identify the determinants of hotel demand for U.S. hotels and another on economic and capital market antecedents of venture capital commitments. He is currently working on a project to disaggregate hotel room rates within urban markets and another to determine the risk-return characteristics of hotel room rates in major U.S. markets. Dr. Carvell is also involved with evaluating the effectiveness of hotel company business strategies using strategic benchmarking and economic value-added analysis.
Dr. Carvell has worked for professional money managers in the area of applied strategy in the equity market and served as a consultant to the Presidential Commission on the 1987 stock market crash. His consulting interests include valuation and risk analysis in feasibility studies, hotel debt capacity, strategic benchmarking, and corporate and financial strategy.
Chekitan Dev is an internationally renowned scholar and thought leader on marketing and branding in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries. As an expert witness, he has testified in deposition, at trial, and at arbitration in numerous hospitality-related matters, both in the United States and internationally, including multiple cases involving hotel owner–brand relationships and the online travel industry.
Professor Dev has consulted on marketing and branding to major corporations. He has more than 40 years of experience analyzing an array of issues involving hotels, travel, and tourism. Professor Dev’s recent research has focused on how branding and rebranding affect both public perception and profitability in the hospitality industry. In particular, he has assessed key drivers of profitability and customer loyalty, including branding, digital marketing, and consumer service. Professor Dev has also evaluated brand portfolio strategy in the context of hotel mergers.
An award-winning author, Professor Dev wrote “Hospitality Branding” (Cornell University Press), as well as over 100 articles in leading academic and practitioner journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research, and Harvard Business Review. He has coauthored multiple case studies for Harvard Business School and in 2019 received the overall winner award for best case study from the Case Centre at the Cranfield School of Management (UK). The American Marketing Association recognized Professor Dev and his coauthors as finalists for the Best Service Research Paper of the Year Award for their article “Return on Service Amenities” (Journal of Marketing Research, 2017).
Professor Dev is a sought-after commentator on hospitality trends. He has been interviewed numerous times in the mainstream media, and his research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and the International Herald Tribune, among others. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has selected Professor Dev as one of the “Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Hospitality, Travel and Tourism Sales and Marketing.”
At Cornell’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Professor Dev teaches courses on brand and marketing management.
Rob Kwortnik, Associate Professor of Services Marketing, joined Cornell’s faculty after earning his Ph.D. in Business Administration from Temple University in 2003. He also earned a B.A. in Journalism from Temple and an MBA from California State University, Northridge. Professor Kwortnik’s research focuses on consumer behavior in service contexts, with special attention to service experience management. He has published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Service Research, The International Journal of Research in Marketing, and the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, among others. He has been honored eight times as a Teacher of the Year by students at the School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his career in academics, Professor Kwortnik held several professional positions in marketing and was a travel industry consultant. He is a recognized expert on the leisure cruise industry.
Andrew Quagliata is a Senior Lecturer in Management Communication at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Quagliata teaches courses in business writing, persuasive communication, entrepreneurial communication, and real estate communication. He engages with industry by speaking and delivering workshops on topics related to interpersonal communication, presentation skills, workplace writing, relationship building, storytelling, and influence. Professor Quagliata holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the University at Buffalo. Prior to his arrival at Cornell, he held professional positions in finance and higher education.
Neil Tarallo is a senior lecturer of entrepreneurship at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. He currently serves as the director of the Cornell University Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Disabled Veterans (EBV), which offers entrepreneurship education to post 9/11 veterans and as the director (interim) of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship. He has also served as the curriculum lead and co-PI for the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Veteran Business Development’s boots2business program.
As an entrepreneur, Tarallo has owned and operated companies in the fields of photographic retail and quick printing. He has also purchased, rehabilitated, and sold numerous businesses. Tarallo currently has an active consulting practice as well a commercial real estate development and management company. He is also member of a venture capital partnership and an active angel investor.
A seasoned active entrepreneur, academic, and consultant with a proven track record of bringing real world experiences to students, veterans, and corporate/non-profit clients internationally in the classroom, online, and through seminars.
”I teach and have created a broad spectrum of entrepreneurship courses for delivery in the classroom and online with significant experience developing academic entrepreneurship programs, including centers and institutes, dating back to 1994. Teaching experiences in Djibouti (Africa), South Africa, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Japan have given me the opportunity to observe entrepreneurship in cultures and economies outside of the United States. These experiences have broadened my entrepreneurial repertoire in the classroom and in consulting engagements.
These experiences have also helped me to understand the importance of aggregating theory and practice in the classroom. I have found that by designing a curriculum rich in experiential learning opportunities and engaging students in a real world application of knowledge, I am able to provide a more impactful learning experience that will also translate into their professional lives.
Along the way I have developed expertise in establishing entrepreneurial behavior, culture, mindset, and structure for existing corporations/organizations with over 20 years’ experience applying these skills in corporate and academic environments as an entrepreneur and consultant. When I am not teaching, I work with corporations and non-profits to help them create new markets through value proposition design, customer experience mapping, and business model evolution.”
Kate Walsh is Dean of the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration and E. M. Statler Professor. A professor of management, Dean Walsh has been a member of the Hotel School’s faculty since 2000. She received her Ph.D. from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and her MPS degree from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Fairfield University.
Dean Walsh’s primary research is in identity, leadership, and career development. She also conducts research examining the impact of strategic human capital investments. In addition to contributing to numerous books, Dean Walsh’s articles have appeared in such outlets as Journal of Management, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Resource Management Review, Organization Science, Career Development International, The Service Industries Journal, Trends in Organizational Behavior, Research in Management Consulting, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, The Learning Organization, International Journal of Hospitality Management, and The Cornell Hospitality Quarterly.
Dean Walsh has extensive industry experience. She is the former director of training and development for Nikko Hotels International, corporate training manager for the former Bristol Hotels, and senior auditor for Loews Corporation. Dean Walsh is also a former New York State Certified Public Accountant.
Dean Walsh began her second term as dean on July 2, 2021. Since the beginning of her administration, she has focused on positioning Nolan for the future of hospitality business education as well as contributing to the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. This includes undertaking a comprehensive renewal of the graduate and undergraduate curricula, developing Nolan’s online global presence, launching two new graduate degree programs, and providing thought leadership for the hospitality industry, most notably through the creation of industry-based webinars to guide the industry during the pandemic as well as supporting extensive outreach and engagement through Nolan’s six centers and institutes.
Dean Walsh serves on the boards of the American Hotel and Lodging Association, including serving on its Educational Foundation’s DE&I committee, and Yonsei University’s School of Business.
J. Bruce Tracey is a Professor of Management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Professor Tracey has taught courses in human resources management for undergraduate, graduate, and professional audiences throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, winning several awards for his efforts. He has conducted research on a wide range of strategic and operational-level HR topics, including the roles and relevance of HR flexibility, the impact of training initiatives on individual and firm performance, employee turnover, employment law, and leadership.
Professor Tracey has presented his work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences, and his research has been published in many of the top-tier discipline and applied outlets, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Research Methods, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law. Professor Tracey’s sponsors for research and consulting include Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International, Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts, Wynn Resorts, Hillstone Restaurant Group, and Uno Chicago Grill, and he has been cited in the New York Times, USA Today, Fast Company, and the Orlando Sentinel, among other popular press outlets.
Pamela Moulton is an Associate Professor of Finance at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. Her teaching and research interests include financial markets and market microstructure, with a special interest in the role of investors. Her current research focuses on the impact of high-frequency trading on stock performance, the role of designated and voluntary market makers in stock liquidity, and detecting fraud in financial statements. Professor Moulton’s research has been published in several of the leading finance and accounting journals, including the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Prior to her academic career, Professor Moulton worked in fixed-income research for more than a dozen years at various Wall Street investment banks, including Deutsche Bank, where she was a managing director and global co-head of relative value research. From 2003 to 2006, she was a managing director and senior economist at the New York Stock Exchange, where she focused on equity market microstructure research. A chartered financial analyst (CFA), Professor Moulton earned her B.S. in economics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in finance and MPhil from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. She was previously on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Fordham University.
Lilly Jan is a lecturer of food and beverage at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. She brings nearly 15 years of experience in hospitality and foodservice, having worked in restaurants, catering and events, retail, and television production. Prior to joining Cornell, Dr. Jan was the Director of Culinary Operations for Newbury College in Brookline, Massachusetts. She also served as a faculty member and academic advisor at Newbury College, creating and teaching a range of classes across culinary and hospitality management. Dr, Jan has also taught for Le Cordon Bleu and Boston University.
As a chef, product and recipe developer, and foodservice consultant, Dr. Jan has worked with a variety of food-based businesses, including a food truck, on-demand food delivery, food startup, and retail food stores. She specializes in operations management, focusing on ushering food business concepts to market.
A frequent speaker and media contact on food culture, cooking, and Chinese cuisine, Dr. Jan has been featured in print and radio outlets. She worked on TV production for America’s Test Kitchen and was a regular contributor for WGBH’s Boston Public Radio.
Dr. Jan is a two-time graduate of Boston University in Communications (B.Sc.) and Gastronomy (MLA). She earned her Ph.D. from Iowa State University in hospitality management with a focus on food allergy knowledge and training in ethnic restaurants. Dr. Jan’s research interests include workplace training and education in foodservice, career progression in foodservice, food safety and food allergy in restaurants, and culture and cuisine.
Jeanne Varney is a senior lecturer at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration. She is part of the Property Development and Management Department, where she is responsible for the curriculum in Hospitality Facilities Management, Hospitality Asset Management, Sustainable Development, and Introduction to Sustainable Hospitality Principles. In Hospitality Facilities Management, Professor Varney combines the technical facilities curriculum with a practical management perspective. In Hospitality Asset Management, she examines the broad range of issues faced by hotel ownership groups requiring asset management oversight and analyses, as well as how to influence results that meet ownership objectives. In Sustainable Development, Professor Varney leads students through the principles, methodology, and strategic application of green hotel development and practices in an engaged learning environment. In Introduction to Sustainable Hospitality Principles, she guides students through the implementation of tactical green principles, policies, and practices.
Outside Cornell, Professor Varney is a principal with Olive Hospitality Consulting, where she provides practical sustainability solutions to businesses looking to improve the “triple bottom line” for their organizations. She has more than 20 years of real estate, operations, and sustainable hospitality experience. Prior to establishing Olive Hospitality Consulting, Professor Varney was vice president of asset management at Host Hotels and Resorts, administering the full range of ownership responsibilities, including operational and capital expenditure budgeting, ongoing operational reviews, and long-term strategic planning for the properties. She previously held positions with Marriott International Corporate Headquarters and Horwath Landauer Hospitality Consulting, as well as positions with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
In addition to her professional duties, Professor Varney is an international past-president for NEWH, Inc., and a founding member of the NEWH Sustainability Committee. She is also a member of U.S. Green Building Council, Sustainable Hospitality Council, Cornell Real Estate Council, and Cornell Hotel Society. Professor Varney holds an MBA from the George Washington University and a B.S. degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
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Key Course Takeaways
- Identify the key challenges and opportunities facing hospitality businesses today
- Explore ideas for innovative hospitality products and services that can stimulate demand and address consumer expectations in the new travel normal
- Assess the strengths that are key to your personalized approach as a leader
- Develop context-specific solutions for HR challenges
- Enhance guest loyalty by communicating the guest experience through digital media channels such as dynamic websites, content-fueled social media, and branded video
- Explore the competing interests within a hotel to understand the concept of value creation from each stakeholder’s perspective
- Discuss best practices for communicating sustainability initiatives
- Gain access to a global network of hospitality professionals
What You'll Earn
- General Managers Program Certificate from Cornell School of Hotel Administration
- Affiliate membership in the Cornell Hotel Society, a premier hospitality network
- 88 Professional Development Hours (8.8 CEUs)
Watch the Video
Who Should Enroll
- General managers overseeing full-service hotels
- Senior hospitality professionals such as managing directors, assistant general managers, executive assistant managers, and operations directors who are on a pathway to promotion to General Manager within 12 months
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