Academics

Mark Lomanno
President

Smith Travel Research

Mark Lomanno has been with Smith Travel Research for over 15 years. As President, he sets company policy and direction while overseeing daily operations. In addition, he coordinates initiatives and implementation for STR's ventures, both domestically and globally.  Mr. Lomanno is highly regarded for his lodging industry expertise and writes a column for Hotel & Motel Management magazine. He serves on the advisory boards of the HSMAI Foundation, The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University, and Travel Industry of America. He is a frequent speaker at industry seminars and guest lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration

Mark Woodworth ‘77
Executive Vice President

PKF Consulting

Based in PKF Consulting’s Atlanta office, Mr. Woodworth has extensive hospitality industry experience in both a consulting and hands-on operational capacity. Woodworth is responsible for the firm's hospitality consulting in the South as well as the firm's research company, PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR). As a respected expert in the industry , Mr. Woodworth has been quoted in such noted publications as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times.  He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a guest lecturer at Cornell University and Georgia State University, among others.

Peter Yesawich ‘72
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Y Partnership

Y Partnership is America’s leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients from across the United States and Europe.  Mr. Yesawich is a frequent commentator on travel trends in such publications as The New York Times, Time, and Business Week, on the CNN, CNBC and MSNBC cable television networks, and on National Public Radio. He serves as a featured columnist in several industry trade publications and has authored numerous articles on marketing and advertising strategy in professional journals.

Michael Cahill ‘84
President & Founder

Hospitality Real Estate Councelors

Michael Cahill, CRE, MAI, FRICS, CHA is president and founder of HREC - Hospitality Real Estate Counselors, a leading international real estate investment banking and advisory firm specializing exclusively in the lodging and gaming industries.  Mr. Cahill has counseled on over 1,000 hotels located throughout North America.  He has authored and published over 85 industry articles, lectured to more than 40 of the nation’s premier industry organizations and has been quoted as an industry expert in 60 different publications.  He is co-chairman of both the Lodging Industry Investment Council (“LIIC”) and the International Lodging Finance Council (“ILFC”).  Mr. Cahill was an original co-founder of the Microtel lodging concept and hotel chain.  He is a graduate of the Cornell University Hotel School.  

Robert Kline ‘84
President & Co-Founder

Chartres Lodging Group Inc.

Mr. Kline is a 20+year veteran of the lodging industry who has directed more than $5 billion in transactions and pioneered the development of a multitude of asset management practices.  Prior to forming Oxford Lodging (now The Chartres Lodging Group) in 2002 and serving with Oxford Capital Partners, he founded Lodging Business for Lend Lease Real Estate Investments and was the founding head of acquisitions for Strategic Hotel Capital.  He is a founding director of the Hotel Asset Management Association and a frequent lecturer at universities and industry conferences.

Joy Hou ‘98
Director

Barclays Capital

Ms. Hou joined Barclays Capital in 2006 as a Director in the US Real Estate Capital Markets Group.  Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC. She is responsible for originating, structuring and executing all spectrums of debt and equity transactions with primary focus in Hospitality products.  Prior to joining Barclays Capital, Ms. Hou was a Vice President at Lehman Brothers in the Global Real Estate Group for over six years where she underwrote, restructured, and closed over $5 billion of debt and equity transactions.  Furthermore, she acquired other real estate experiences during her tenure at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and HVS International.

Allen Smith ‘80
Managing Director & Senior Portfolio Manager

Prudential Real Estate Investors

 Allen Smith is chief executive officer of PREI, Prudential Financial Inc.’s, real estate investment management and advisory business.  PREI offers a broad range of investment opportunities and investment management services through specialized operating units in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He is also a member of PREI’s Investment and Business Management Committees.  During his career at Prudential Financial, Smith has held positions in portfolio management, asset management, equity research, corporate finance, strategic planning, and administration.  Before Prudential, Smith worked as an assistant to the chief financial officer of the Wyndham Hotel Company. Smith is a member of PREA and the Urban Land Institute.

Simon Turner ‘83
Principal

Hotel Capital Advisors

Hotel Capital Advisers, Inc. is a hotel investment advisory and asset manage­ment firm that oversees and directs a portion of HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s hotel investment activities. Mr. Turner is a member of Fairmont Hotels’ Board of Directors and is Chairman of the Audit Committee. Previously a member of the Board of Directors of Four Seasons, he served on the company’s Audit Committee and Human Resources Committees. Prior to 1996, Mr. Turner was in Investment Banking at Salomon Brothers. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and was previously Vice Chairman of the organization’s hotel council. He recently joined the Gov­ernmental Affairs Committee of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Daniel Quan
Professor

School of Hotel Administration

Daniel Quan’s teaching and research interests include real estate and real estate finance, with an emphasis on securitization and structured finance. Prior to his Cornell appointment, Quan was the chief mortgage economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C. He was responsible for monitoring and reporting on matters relating to primary and secondary mortgage markets for the residential and the commercial sector. He serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals and is a board of director member for the Asian Real Estate Society. His publications include papers on auction theory, international performance of commercial real estate, and the pricing and hedging of risk in the hospitality industry.

Ira Cohn
President

ARAMARK Business & Industry Group
Ira R. Cohn is President of the ARAMARK Business & Industry Group.  In this role he is responsible for the Business Services, Refreshment Services and Business & Industry Facility Services lines of business in the U.S. and Canada.  He was appointed to this position in 2006.  Cohn joined ARAMARK in 1984 as a senior business planner for Corporate Planning and Development. Cohn has also overseen the management of food services for several Olympic events, including the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.  At both events, ARAMARK provided food services to athletes and team officials at the Olympic Village.  Before joining ARAMARK, Cohn was a consultant with Laventhal & Horwath, a financial services firm.

Marc Bruno ‘93 
Vice President

ARAMARK Business & Industry Group 

James Maas

Psychology Professor and

Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow

College of Arts and Sciences

James Maas is the Psychology 101 Professor here at Cornell.  He has devoted thirty years of research to exploring sleep and sleep deprivation.  He has a particular interest in sleep requirements and performance with regard to students and executives.

Brian Ferguson
SVP Planning and Analysis

Expedia, Inc.

Mr. Ferguson is the Vice President for Strategy & Analysis for Expedia, Inc., the worlds largest on-line Travel Agency.  Prior to joining Expedia, he was Vice President of Smith Travel Research (STR) the leading authority on current trends in occupancy, room rate and supply/demand data.  Mr. Ferguson was founder and president of RealTime Hotel Reports, an infomediary for the lodging industry, and has worked at four of New York City’s finest hotels, including the Carlyle and the Waldorf Astoria, as well as the Metropolitan Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.  Mr.  Ferguson spent a year working in Nairobi, Kenya for Africa Expeditions, where he was Director of Business Development.  Mr. Ferguson holds a Masters Degree from the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, and currently resides in Seattle.

Vincent Joyner
CEO

ACCOR Southern Africa

Vincent Joyner is CEO for Accor Hospitality Southern Africa with responsibly for their businesses in the region, including hotel operations, development, marketing and managing relations with business partners and shareholders.  Vincent has been involved in the industry since the age of 17 and with Accor since 1991. In 1991, he obtained his Masters Degree in Hospitality Management from IMHI - a joint program of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (USA) and ESSEC Graduate School of Management (France) and also holds a BA Degree in Hotel Management from GMIT (Ireland). He is fluent in French.Accor is a global leader in tourism with 4000 hotels in 90 countries ranging from the luxury Sofitel hotels through mid-market hotels to Motel 6.

Paul Sistare
CEO & President

Atlantica International Hotels

Atlantica Hotels is one of the top 100 largest international hotel operators, according to Hotels International. Opening one hotel every 40 days and signing an average of 1 additional hotel per month, Atlantica Hotels has raised over USD$950 million in equity capital in the past 10 years. Prior to Atlantica Hotels International, Mr. Sistare was President and Chief Executive Officer of Richfield Hospitality Services, Inc. Preceding Richfield, he was Senior Vice President, Americas with London-based Forte PLC, the renowned international hospitality organization with more than 800 hotels worldwide. Mr. Sistare also held senior management positions at Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando, Florida. Sistare is a board member of the American Hotel Association’s Educational Institute and is recognized as a Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA).

Adnan Shamim
Director of Development

Dubai Infinity Holdings

A 2003 graduate of The Hotel School, Adnan Shamim has followed his dreams of becoming a hotel developer passionately.  He spent his early career interning and working with the leading hospitality consultants, HVS International and Pinnacle Advisory Group, where he learned the feasibility and valuations side of hotel finance.  Thereafter, Adnan joined the acquisitions and development team of New Castle Hotels to work on the development of the first new Sheraton prototype in Tarrytown, New York as well as the acqusitions and dispositions of leading properties in the Northeastern US and Canada.  He followed his ambitions to Dubai where he worked with Sama Dubai, the international development arm of Dubai Holding, to develop the mixed-use skyscraper and resort brands of "Dubai Towers" and "Salam Resorts" throughout the emerging markets including the Salam Resort Bahrain in coordination with the Royal Court in preparation of the 2010 GCC Summit.  Most recently, Adnan has joined as Director of Development of a newly formed investment group and development think tank, Dubai Infinity Holdings, to lead the development of revolutionary hospitality concepts including the flagship "Isla Moda", The World's fashion island.  Isla Moda will be an island destination devoted to a bespoke and limited edition lifestyle catering to the most fashionable of clientele.  Adnan considers himself truly lucky to be able to create the world's first such destination and is grateful to all his peers and moreover his mentors from Cornell and beyond who trained him to have the confidence and passion to be a part of such exciting developments.  He is happy to report that since moving to Dubai, he has learned to ski and play golf and looks forward to welcoming Hotelies and Cornellians upon their travels to the region.

Courtney Cochran

Owner and Founder

Your Personal Sommelier

Courtney Cochran holds a sommelier certification from the International Sommelier Guild and the American Court of Masters Sommeliers.  She is the author of the recently published book Hip Tastes: The Fresh Guide to Wine.  She operates her own business, entitled Your Personal Sommelier.  She has passed levels 1 and 2 of the Master Sommelier program, and she is in the process of becoming a Master Sommelier. 

Glenn Card

Professional Beekeeper

Merrimack Valley Apiaries

Glenn Card is professional beekeeper Glenn Card’s family has been in the beekeeping industry for fifty years, and he is a third generation beekeeper.  His family founded Merrimack Valley Apiaries, which provides a honeybee pollination service and also raises bees to supply beekeepers nationwide.  The company operates over 12,000 colonies.