Lecturers
Prof. Ramon Diaz-Bernardo, Ph.D.
An expert in strategic marketing, some years ago Professor Ramon Diaz-Bernardo decided to extend his field of research to tourism and hotel marketing strategy. This is his passion, which led him to create the Master in Tourism Management at IE Business School in 2002, and work as a consultant for many tourism institutions and hotel chains all over the world. He is an active member of the Academy of Marketing and the American Marketing Association, where he is a regular contributor at their annual meetings. Professor Diaz-Bernardo serves regularly as a consultant for the United Nations World Tourism Organization, especially for the UNWTO Asia/Pacific Representation.
Professor Diaz-Bernardo is a very active international executive education instructor especially in the areas of tourism and hospitality management. Currently Prof. Diaz-Bernardo serves as Visiting Professor in executive education programmes at Cornell University (USA), Reykjavik University (Iceland), Cornell – Nanyang Institute (Singapore), and Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel Administration (Hong Kong), among other international business schools.
Prof. Conrad Lashley, Ph.D.
Professor Conrad Lashley’s academic leadership in the study of hospitality and hospitableness has resulted in the emergence of an array of research papers, PhD theses, books, conference presentations and refereed journal articles, as well as a new refereed journal. In addition, he has a considerable commercial profile working with many major international companies and generating over £3 million of income from commercial and governmental sources. . He has been invited to speak as a key note speaker at conferences in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Eire, Holland, India, New Zealand, Sweden, the USA, as well as the UK. He is an expert advisor on hospitality and tourism to the Australian government. He has contributed to the development of knowledge in hospitality management through a string privately funded research projects from commercial organisations such as the Punch Pub Company, the Corner House (Nottingham), and McDonald’s Restaurants, as well as through public sector funded projects through North West Tourism, Marketing Manchester, East Midlands Tourism and the ESRC.
Pauline J. Sheldon, Ph.D
Pauline J. Sheldon PhD is Professor Emerita at the University of Hawaii’s School of Travel Industry Management where she currently specializes in wellness tourism, corporate social responsibility, sustainable tourism and knowledge management in tourism. She holds a PhD in Economics, a Masters in Business Administration, and a bachelors degree in Mathematics. She has published over seventy books and journal articles. She serves on the review boards for the leading journals in tourism.
She is currently the President of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism – a prestigious group of the most distinguished researchers in tourism. She also served as Interim Dean of the School of Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii for four years. In 2008 she won the UNWTO Ulysses prize for her contributions to the development of knowledge in sustainable tourism. In 2009 she was recognized with the International Travel and Tourism Research Association Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been a Visiting Professor at numerous universities worldwide including Vienna University of Economics, Institute of Tourism and Leisure Studies, the International Masters in Tourism and Environmental Economics (MTEE) at the University of Balearic Islands in Mallorca, Spain, Hue University in Vietnam, and Bond University in Australia where she won the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award for her course on corporate social responsibility in tourism and hospitality.
Dr. Sheldon has shown leadership in numerous international organizations. She co-founded the Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) with Dr. Daniel Fesenmaier; chaired the BEST Education Network for six years. She also co-founded TRINET (Tourism Research Information Network) which is an international tourism researchers’ electronic bulletin board with over 800 subscribers worldwide. She has worked extensively at the international level with organizations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization, APEC International Center for Sustainable Tourism, and the World Bank, and at the local level as a Board member of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, and as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Hawaii Tourism Authority which was tasked to define sustainable tourism policies and indicators for Hawaii.
Peter Groznik, Ph.D
Peter Groznik teaches various financial courses at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana. He is also the owner of NorthGrant Consulting, an investment consulting firm. He has extensive experience in the financial industry, particularly in the fields of asset management and investment and corporate governance consulting, and was appointed to lead the Strategic Council for Economic Development of the Slovenian Government during the years 2007-2008. Peter received his BSc from the University of Ljubljana - School of Economics and his Doctorate degree in Finance from Indiana University - Kelley School of Business.
MODULE: Capital budgeting and corporate valuation in hospitality industry
Tanja Mihalič, Ph.D
Tanja Mihalič is a Professor in Tourism and the Head of the Institute for Tourism at the University of Ljubljana, School of Economics (Slovenia). Her education is in economics, business administration and environmental policy and was obtained in Ljubljana (Slovenia). Indiana (USA) and St. Gallen University (Switzerland). She worked for Institute for Tourism at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, was a visiting researcher and professor and has taught many courses at foreign universities across Europe, as well as business seminars.
She has been one of its founders that brought the Blue Flag campaign to Slovenia and twelve years the president of environmental organization Foundation for environmental education in Europe – Slovenia and has 20-year experience in environmental labelling. She has written many articles and also worked with private and public sector to implement environmental labelling and management in Slovenia and as Executive member of the global Foundation for Environmental Education also in other countries. She has also advised Slovenian government on the implementation of sustainable tourism policy and is a member of many tourism related boards and committees in Slovenia.
Rok Hrastnik, iProm
Rok Hrastnik is an experienced international internet marketer and manager in Central & Eastern Europe, lead by the conviction that marketers should first be driven by measurable business outcomes: sales and profits. Or in his own words: "No sales, no cookies." And he also loves analytics, sincerely believing its "hot". Today, Rok is the CEO of Iprom, a leading Slovene online advertising provider and ad network, focusing on developing core new internet marketing services and on international expansion. Until October 2011 he served as the International Internet Director at Studio Moderna, managing their internet operations across 22 countries (Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania, the Baltics and others). In his spare time Rok is an international speaker (conferences such as MarketingSherpa's Email Summit, Conversion Conference, DMA Annual, ERA Europe Annual etc.), author (in 2003 he published "Unleashed the Marketing Power of RSS" in the US, critically acclaimed as "the best and most comprehensive" resource on RSS for marketers; published in 2007 in Japan) and entrepreneur (right now as co-owner of Mapyx, an up-and-coming leader in UK digital mapping). His other previous experience includes online business media management, online marketing consulting to small and enterprise businesses, publishing in the US, entrepreneurship ... and even design..
MODULE: From Traditional to On-line Marketing: Practical solutions
Brendan May
Brendan May is responsible for Business Development and Sales, Central & Eastern Europe for IDeaS Revenue Optimization. In the over 4 years since joining, Brendan has helped many regional hotel chains and independent properties drive better revenue by supporting the implementation of International Best Practices in Revenue Management tailored for local market needs. Brendan works closely with hotels across Europe and understands the challenges and benefits of implementing Revenue Management. Working with the world’s leading Revenue Management company, Brendan is on the pulse of Revenue Management as it is practiced today and is a regular speaker at industry events across Europe including the UPUHH conference in Zagreb.
Before joining IDeaS, Brendan was Director of Client Services at h2c consulting, a consulting firm specialized in electronic hotel distribution. In that role, he helped hotels better understand new technologies and develop successful strategies. He is an active member of the Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA). He is currently participating in a committee to support electronic transfer of reservations from Tour Operators to Hotels.
Brendan has written several industry articles and was a Technology Analyst at the renowned US travel research company PhoCusWright. He holds a hospitality specialized Bachelor of Commerce with Honours from the University of Guelph, School of Hotel and Food Administration in Ontario, Canada where he was awarded the Janet M. Wardlaw medal. Brendan began his hospitality career with Hilton in the Elevator Graduate Management Programme and has gained operational experience with various hotels in Europe and North America including the prestigious Hotel im Wasserturm in Cologne.
