Alex Susskind

Biography

Alex M. Susskind joined the faculty at Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration in 1998. He is a professor of food and beverage management and the director of the Cornell Institute of Food and Beverage Management. Susskind also serves as the Nolan senior director of programs at the school.

Susskind earned his PhD in communication with a specialization in organizational communication from Michigan State University and his MBA with a concentration in personnel and human relations. He earned his undergraduate degree at Purdue University in restaurant, hotel, and institutional management and is also a trained chef with a degree in culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.

Prior to starting his career in academia, Susskind worked as a chef and restaurant operator for both independent and multi-unit restaurant companies in the northeastern and southeastern United States.

At Nolan, Susskind teaches undergraduate and graduate courses addressing the operational and strategic elements of the food and beverage business. He also teaches managers and executives both on and off-campus through the school's executive education program. He recently developed and launched an eight-course online certificate program in Food and Beverage Management for eCornell.

Through his active research program, Susskind examines how: 1) customer-service provider interaction among guests, employees, and managers influences organizational performance; 2) communication networks in organizations are influenced by elements such as teamwork and organizational change; 3) organizational technology is influencing/changing the relationship between guests and service-based employees and managers, and 4) nutrition information provided by restaurants on menus (as required by the Affordable Care Act starting in May 2018) is influencing guests' food choices when they dine out in full-service restaurants.

On a personal note, Susskind and his wife Carrie have two boys and live happily in Ithaca, NY. He studies Chun Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do and holds a 2nd Dan Black Belt; is an enthusiastic collector of fine wines with around 1,400 bottles in his personal wine cellar; and is a drummer who practices nearly every day.

Selected Publications

• Susskind, Alex; Odom-Reed, Peggy. "Team Member's Centrality, Cohesion, Conflict, and Performance in Multi-University Geographically Distributed Project Teams"Communication Research. 46.2 (2019): 151-178
• Susskind, Alex. "Downsizing Survivors' Communication Networks and Reactions: An Examination of Information Adequacy and Turnover Intentions"Communication Research. 34.2 (2007): 156-184
• Susskind, Alex; Kacmar, K.; Borchgrevink, Carl. "Guest–Server Exchange Model and Performance: The Connection Between Service Climate and Unit-Level Sales in Multiunit Restaurants"Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. 42.1 (2018): 122-141

Awards and Honors

• Lead Author Best Paper of the Year Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research Journal (2017) The Council on Hotel Restaurant and Institutional Education (CHRIE)

Recent Courses

• HADM 3365 - Foodservice Management Essentials
• HADM 6065 - Industry Immersion I
• HADM 6066 - Industry Immersion II
• HADM 7090 - Introduction to Hospitality
• HADM 6100 - MMH Distinguished Lectures (DDLS)
• HADM 6390 - Operational Analysis for Foodservice Management
• HADM 3960/HADM 7960 - Seminar in Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion

Academic Degrees

• PhD Michigan State University, 1996
• MBA The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University, 1993
• BS Purdue University, 1991
• AOS Culinary Institute of America, 1988