Gilda Perez-Alvarado ‘02 is a leading figure in financial advisory for the hospitality industry as Global CEO of JLL Hotels & Hospitality. She is a two-time recipient of the Jack A. Shaffer Financial Advisor of the Year award at ALIS and the only woman to ever receive the award. After joining JLL NYC in 2010, Ms. Perez-Alvarado was based in Madrid and London as head of Hotel Debt Advisory in Spain and Portugal, responsible for luxury hotel transactions in the UK, Benelux, and Scandinavia. Prior to JLL, she worked for PwC Miami for their Latin America and Caribbean sector. Ms. Perez-Alvarado was Degree Marshall for her graduating class at The Hotel School at Cornell and continues to serve the community as a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees.
Event Overview
This event is brought to you by The 98th Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell. Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) is a three-day, student-run business conference for hospitality industry leaders and members of the Cornell community from across the globe. A 98-year tradition of the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, HEC is one of the oldest organizations at Cornell and an unparalleled introduction to the students, faculty, and alumni of the preeminent hospitality program in the nation. Featuring some of the most talented individuals in the business, the conference will discuss the latest developments in hospitality and include leisure events for attendees to network with other professionals and meet the students who will be leading the industry in the future. Learn more about the conference at the Hotel Ezra Cornell website.
What You'll Learn
- What hospitality real estate entails
- How ESG trends are changing the hospitality real estate industry
- Strategies for innovation within the hospitality real estate industry
Speakers
Lucas Arulpragasam is a junior at the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, growing up in Jakarta, Manila, Bethesda, and now living in Zagreb, Croatia. Through his global upbringing, Mr. Arulpragasam fell in love with international hospitality and was dedicated to the industry at an early age. He continues this passion at the Nolan Hotel School and hopes to go into hospitality development with a focus on sustainability or into the airline industry. 2023 marks Mr. Arulpragasam’s first year in Hotel Ezra Cornell and, as Director of Programs, he hopes to use his experiences to help bring new ideas to the conference and make HEC 98 the best conference yet.
Outside of HEC, Mr. Arulpragasam currently serves on the Dean’s Student Advisory Board at the Nolan Hotel School, works in the Front Office at the Statler Hotel, is a member of the Hotel Leadership Development Program, and served on the board of Air and Sea Hospitality as the Director of Marketing. Outside of academics, you will find Mr. Arulpragasam singing around campus with the a cappella group Last Call, in which he serves as the Vice President, as well as the Vice President of the A Cappella Advisory Council as a whole. This past summer, he worked in hotel operations for Marriott in Bethesda, Maryland.
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