245 | Win-Win: Women of AAHOA step up to the leadership plate

This is the second of a two-part update about people, campaigns and programs that are furthering the mission to promote more women into leadership roles in the hospitality industry. In this episode we touch base with Jagruti Panwala and Rachel Humphrey who are in top leadership roles at AAHOA, the world’s largest hotel owners association read more

244 | Missing Rungs: A slow climb for women in hospitality leadership

A new study by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org reveals that over the past five years Corporate America has made some progress in gender diversity, including increasing the number of women in leadership. Although that finding is promising, women remain underrepresented in business leadership across the board and continue to lack access to opportunities available read more

218 | Yes, Girls Allowed: More women venturing into hotel investment

Who invests money better, men or women? Fidelity Investments found surprising answers to that question when it surveyed nearly 3,000 people. The group was almost evenly divided between the sexes. Yet only a tenth of women said their investments would outperform men’s. Meantime, a separate analysis by Fidelity shows women consistently generated larger returns on read more

212 | Can We Talk? Why women don’t negotiate

This episode of Lodging Leaders explores why women in business often don’t negotiate and why they don’t win at the negotiating table as often as their male counterparts. We identify some fundamental stumbling blocks and barriers to women’s ability to get what they want. And we offer experts’ advice on how to craft a negotiation read more

March 2nd week

Bias and Backward Thinking: What’s holding women back

Women are making strides toward greater leadership in the hospitality sector, but the road ahead is long and is not without hurdles erected by bias and backward thinking. Tired of waiting for the industry to get on board, more women are driving their own success.

204 | Bias and Backward Thinking: What’s holding women back

This week, Lodging Leaders focuses on women in hospitality, and the long road ahead for those who want a lead role in the industry. You’ll hear from … Peggy Berg, founder of Castell Project Jeffrey Tobias Halter, corporate gender consultant and founder of Why Women Beth Milano, manager at Ruckus Wireless Kris Gathright, executive vice president and read more

112 | Connecting with Your Team, Empowering Women and Mountain Climbing with Lina Patel

Lina Patel’s goal is to climb mountains and her passion is to serve. Born and raised in India, Lina immigrated to the United States in the early 80’s with her parents. She grew up working in the hotel, cleaning rooms, doing laundry, working front desk shifts, and even mowing the lawn. She remembers coming home after school and read more

109 | Passion, Courage and Patience with Dina Patel

Dina Patel, CHO was born in Bardoli, India, and immigrated to USA with her family in 1988, when she was 10 years old. Two years later, Dina’s parents bought their first independent motel in San Antonio, Texas. From day one, Dina helped out in every part of the motel. Dina earned a BBA (magna cum read more

101 | Service Recovery – Be the Hero with Susan Pannozzo

Susan Pannozzo, CHA, CHT brings over 30 years of experience to the hospitality industry. She started her career as a Guest Service Representative, working her way up through multiple departments to eventually the role of General Manager. After 14 years in hotel operations, Susan joined the corporate office of IHG in 2000 as Quality Consultant, read more

065 | Going Against the Grain with Hotel Impossible Designer Blanche Garcia

Blanche is a certified Interior Designer with over 18 years of experience in residential and commercial design and is the owner of B. Garcia Designs based in Montclair, New Jersey. She is also a principal designer featured in the popular Travel Channel reality series, Hotel Impossible. Blanche is a member of the American Society of read more

059 | Fail a Thousand Times and Be Cause in the Matter with Dawn Berry

Dawn is President and CEO of PHD Hospitality, a full service asset management, design and development company based in Scottsdale, AZ. In just 10 years, PHD has operated, owned or managed a portfolio of up to 23 properties under management in 11 states. In 2015, PHD Hospitality ranked #85 in the Hotel Business Top 100 Management Companies read more

057 | Why Women: The Leadership Imperative to Advancing Women and Engaging Men with Jeffery Tobias Halter

Jeffery Tobias Halter is a corporate gender strategist. The country’s leading expert on engaging men to advance women, Jeffery is the President of YWomen, a strategic consulting company. The former Director of Diversity Strategy of The Coca-Cola Company, Jeffery has worked with leading companies including McDonald’s, Deloitte, Publicis Groupe, GE and more. Jeffery’s latest book read more

055 | Wow and Win More Market Share with Ciara Feely

Ciara Feely is the creator of The Conference Converter System™ – a proven formula that shows hotels and venues how to win BIG in the Meetings & Event market by helping them to see their business from their client’s point of view. Ciara helps venue teams to be leaders in the sales process and be in read more

050 | Jagruti Panwala for AAHOA Secretary

Jagruti has been active in AAHOA for over a decade, holding leadership positions since 2011 when first elected Female Director At Large, Eastern Division. Re-elected in 2014, she has also co-chaired the Women’s Hotelier Committee for five years and served on the Strategic Planning Committee for two years. She testified to Congress against proposed harmful read more

036 | Effective Networking through Touchpoints and Follow Up with Binita Patel

Binita is currently a Vice President with HMB Hotels based in Allentown, PA, focusing on the finance and asset management aspects of the business. Prior to returning to HMB Hotels, she served as a Manager at Ramsfield Hospitality Finance, and Associate Investment Manager at Beacon Hospitality Partners, both located in New York, NY. Binita earned read more

020 | Leveraging Your Network to Grow Your Business with Gillian Morris

Gillian Morris is the co-founder and CEO of TripCommon and Hitlist, building technology to bring online travel search and booking into the 21st century. TripCommon was born out of cofounders Gillian and Timo de Winter’s years of struggling with outdated, buggy travel search and booking tools. The company’s first product, Hitlist, helps users travel more read more

003 | Great Leadership Stems from the Heart with Nancy Johnson

Nancy Johnson’s career in hospitality spans more than 40 years, the last 25 of which were in executive roles with Carlson that include heading up the brands Country Inn & Suites™ and Radisson Hotels International.  Nancy served as Chair of the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) in 2012, and initiated AH&LA’s Women in Lodging Council. read more