Peng-Wei is a senior concentrating in finance at the School of Hotel Administration. He has been a teaching assistant for finance, hospitality financial management, and financial accounting courses. He is the founder and managing director of the consulting group.
In 2004, he assisted a fund manager in restructuring a Taiwanese mutual fund portfolio. In 2005, he worked in Orange Capital LLC, a global multi-strategy, New York based, hedge-fund where he built company revenue projection and valuation models. In 2006, Peng-Wei worked as an investment banking summer analyst in Lehman Brothers’ Consumer/Retail group where he worked on various corporate and private equity transactions.
Peng-Wei is an Officer of the Singapore Armed Forces, having served two years as an infantry platoon commander and instructor in the Officer Cadet School. On campus, Peng-Wei keeps himself busy as the president of the Hotel School’s honors society, Ye Hosts. He was recently voted as one of the 25 most influential Cornellians of his graduating class in 2006 by the Cornell Daily Sun.
Peng-Wei is currently writing his senior honors thesis on behavioral investing in mutual funds: specifically, on performance-flow relationships for young and small open-ended funds. He will be joining Morgan Stanley's investment banking arm upon graduation in 2007 where he will be working with private equity clients.
A senior in the School of Hotel Administration, Ryan explores his fascination with the science of restaurant operations by studying the application of business theory to restaurant practice. Ryan acts as a teaching assistant for courses in restaurant entrepreneurship, business information systems, and managerial communication, and he is also an active member of the Ye Hosts Academic Honor Society
As a founding member of CHC, Ryan contributes his seven years of restaurant experience, and his work history ranges from food preparation to franchise development to restaurant advertising. Recently, Ryan worked as a franchise consultant to Sugo Restaurant & Tapas, creating a complete recipe-costing model to more accurately track Sugo's food cost. Using the new cost information, he then developed a revised menu, which is directly responsible for bringing an additional $3.17 to Sugo's average check.
Outside of the classroom, Ryan devotes himself to his duties as President of the Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars. He is also a founding member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, which has twice won Cornell University’s award for Most Outstanding Chapter since it’s chartering in 2004.
After graduation, Ryan is excited to continue his work in the hospitality industry as a food & beverage analyst with the restaurant software company Avero in New York City.
Andres brings additional branding and marketing experience. Within the hospitality industry, he has worked for resorts, urban hotels, timeshare properties, and small inns. At those properties in Mexico and the United States, he has managed projects in promotion, advertising, co-branding, and implementation of internal branding strategies. Additionally he has served as a teaching assistant for courses in Brand Management, Hotel Development, and Hospitality Development and Planning at the School of Hotel Administration. Finally, Andres is the author of the Hospitality Brand Management Blog http://hotelbrandmanagement.blogspot.com
Lydia has experienced a range of businesses over the last four years. Most recently, she joined UBS Investment Bank in the Mergers & Acquisitions group where she performed company valuations for both merger and LBO transactions. Prior to joining UBS, Lydia worked for the Shanghai headquarters of Starwood Hotels Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts on the Development and Acquisitions team to conduct market research on Starwood's 30 prospect cities in China. Lydia also worked at FA Technology Ventures, a venture capital fund with over $100 million in holdings. At that firm, she worked closely with the CFO to construct a new fundraising and marketing program.
A Cornell Varsity Football recruit, Marc began his hospitality career at Outback Steakhouse and later served the Statler Hotel in a variety of capacities. During the summer of 2005, he worked on several projects for PM Hospitality Strategies, an established hotel developer and operator in Washington, DC. This past summer, he served as an analyst with Banc of America Securities pricing and marketing convertible debt instruments and assisting with several equity offerings. This summer he will begin working full-time for Banc of America Securities in sales and trading. During his seven semesters at the hotel school, Marc earned numerous scholarships including the Martin "Duke" Blatt Memorial Scholarship for Entrepreneurship. He is an active member of the Ye Hosts Honorary Society and serves as alumni relations chair for Sigma Nu. During his free time he enjoys playing hockey, traveling, and relaxing with family and friends.
Victoria began her hospitality career at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa as an intern in Guest Services and later in Human Resources. She was also a Sales and Marketing Intern at the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Hawaii. During the academic year, Victoria worked at the Statler Hotel as a Front Desk Agent and a Human Resources Assistant, and she has been a teaching assistant for several courses. Having graduated from the Hotel School in December 2006, Victoria now serves as the Corporate Human Resources Coordinator for The KOR Group in Los Angeles.
John has held positions in both restaurants and hotels throughout his eight years of experience in the hospitality industry. Much of his operations experience has been in restaurants, where he has worked as a host, server, pantry cook, and supervisor. In the spring of 2006, he created a forecasting model that accurately predicted the number of guests per night in Ristorante Banfi at the Statler Hotel. The model is still used today by management for forecasting and budgeting. During the summer of 2005, John gained experience in hospitality consulting while working for PKF Hospitality Research Group in Atlanta. In the summer of 2006, he worked for Senior Equity Research Analyst Robert LaFleur covering the lodging, leisure, and gaming industries at Susquehanna International Group. John is planning to join the San Francisco based investment bank W.R. Hambrecht + Co as an analyst in July.
Mark has lived and worked in Brazil, Canada, the United States, Asia, and the Middle East in a variety of capacities, from systems and operations development for Hilton, Marriott, InterContinental and Relais et Châteaux properties to sales, revenue, and distribution strategy for major transportation firms. He joined co-founding CHC in 2005.
At Cornell, Mark has been involved as a teacher assistant for six classes, and he is also the senior student member on Cornell Hotel School’s academic integrity hearing board.
Before transferring into the School of Hotel Administration, Jonathan
attended Les Roches, a Swiss hotel management school, and received his
Swiss Hotel Management Diploma. He has interned at numerous world-renowned
hotels and resorts, including the Hotel D’Angleterre in Geneva, the Old
Course Hotel in St Andrews, and the Amanusa Resort in Bali. Furthermore,
he also worked in food and beverage management at the New York Palace
Hotel. Jonathan has a keen interest in Real Estate and Finance, he
interned with Horwath HTL, the leading hospitality consulting firm in the
Asia Pacific region, and also worked as a Summer Analyst in the IB Global
Equity Research Group at Banc of America Securities. Having graduated in
January 2008, Jonathan now serves as an Analyst for Jones Lang Lasalle
Hotels in Miami.
Naveen has had a broad range of experience in and out of the traditional hospitality field. Having worked in a restaurant, hotel, amusement park and NGO in Morocco, Naveen developed experiences that positioned him well to take on many challenges at Cornell University. Outside of the hotel school, he leads the Cornell Asian Pacific-Islander Students Union which is the umbrella organization for all Asian student groups on campus. At the hotel school, Naveen is president of its honors society, Ye Hosts. He has also been a teaching assistant for finance and managerial accounting.
More recently, Naveen completed work as a summer intern in the Investment Banking Global Technology Group at UBS. There, he aided management of a company develop its S-1 filing for an IPO. He also worked on IPO and equity transaction valuation cases. He hopes to continue his exposure to the finance and hospitality industries by completing a double concentration in hospitality controllership and investment banking.
Anna is a senior concentrating in finance at the School of Hotel Administration. She has worked as a pastry chef for a fine dining restaurant, a hostess and server for Banfi’s Restaurant at the Statler Hotel, and a public relations intern for Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. Most recently, she was a Sales and Marketing Intern for Sheraton Hotels & Resorts in Oahu, Hawaii where she supported the local Hawaii sales team by updating the company’s property management system and creating an Excel-based model to price catering and group functions. She will be working as a hospitality consulting intern for Ernst and Young’s Transaction Real Estate division this upcoming summer.
Jennifer is a senior concentrating in finance at the School of Hotel Administration. In the past few years, she has acquired experience in the legal, hospitality, and finance industries. In the summer of 2005, Jennifer worked as an intern under real estate attorneys at the Lawyers Alliance for New York, the leading provider of business legal services to non-profit organizations in New York City. This past summer, she served as a summer analyst in the Commercial Business Group at Citigroup. Her experience in the hospitality industry includes working at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel and at the Statler Hotel. At Cornell University, she serves as the Vice President of External Affairs for the Student Assembly Finance Commission and the Vice President of Alumni Relations in Delta Sigma Pi International Business Fraternity. Jennifer will be joining Lehman Brothers’ Investment Banking Division this upcoming summer.
Steven began his career in hospitality working in a family restaurant and later at The Statler Hotel. He is currently a senior in the School of Hotel Administration with a concentration in Real Estate Finance. Steven has worked in various facets within the real estate industry. During the summer of his sophomore year, he interned at Trammell Crow Company in New York City, working closely with both the Hospitality & Leisure Group and Commercial Brokerage. He has also served as intern in the Alternative Asset Management Group at JP Morgan Asset Management. Most recently, he worked as a summer analyst in the Equity Capital Markets Group within the Investment Banking Division of UBS, primarily covering the Energy and Real Estate Sectors.
Mike began his marketing career before college, co-founding Gateway Market Research, LLC, providing market research for medical and legal firms in New York City. At Cornell University, he serves as vice president of HSMAI, Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International. In addition, he is also a Microsoft Student Partner, acting as campus representative to Microsoft Corporation and marketing various Microsoft products across campus. He worked at the New York Palace Hotel in Manhattan last summer as a marketing intern, where he developed an e-marketing data model information system, now implemented and used by the e-marketing department, as well as restructuring the revenue forecasting system to reduce forecast data processing time by 90%. More recently, Michael worked at Deloitte Consulting as a summer Business Technology Analyst, performing client service work at a large pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare organization implementing a Trade Promotions Management system.
Christi Lockwood is a senior at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration interested in Hospitality Sales and Training. She spent her past summers sharpening her skills in these areas through internships with companies including Four Seasons and Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Throughout the course of her hospitality career, Christi has completed tasks ranging from redesigning training materials to increase effectiveness and creating new employee training programs to completing product and market research to offer methods to maximize sales effectiveness and firm competitiveness. She also spent two summers abroad in Germany, where she gained experience in areas including hotel and restaurant operations, marketing, and customer relations - not to mention intercultural relations. Christi hopes to begin a successful career in Hospitality Sales and Training upon graduation from the Hotel School this spring.
Dana is a senior at the School of Hotel Administration, concentrating his studies in Real Estate Finance and Entrepreneurship. Most recently, Dana enjoyed working for Boston Properties, a Boston-based real estate investment trust, where he developed a comprehensive understanding of transactions, property management and development in the Class A commercial market. Dana is also a professional DJ, and operates his own firm in the Ithaca area. Currently, Dana is looking forward to the upcoming summer where he will be working as a summer analyst for Goldman Sachs. Dana's long term ambition is to employ his entrepreneurial drive to start a business and build a national brand in hospitality.
Zoe began working in the hospitality industry at age 16 where she interned in operations at the Lanesborough Hotel in London. She continued to delve into the industry by working at Sodexho Corporate Food Service and The St. Regis Hotel, New York. At Sodexho Corporate Food Service she was an Assistant Restaurant Manager. At The St. Regis Hotel, New York, Zoe worked in Sales and Marketing where she was in charge of tracking data for their top ten clients and for facilitating site inspections. This past summer, Zoe worked for Starwood Hotels of New York on their Business Transient Sales Team. She was in charge of their mystery shopping program, tracking revenue, and forecasting Year End average room night revenue. At Cornell University, Zoe serves as a Marketing Researcher, a Teaching Assistant for two marketing classes and a Teaching Assistant for Restaurant Management. She is also the Vice President of Ye Hosts Honorary Society and the Student Committee for Continuous Improvement.
Greg began his career as a team assistant at Blake Global, an international commercial real estate valuation and due diligence firm. In the summer of 2005, he worked in the North American Sales & Marketing headquarters for Dorchester Group Hotels, a small portfolio of five-star properties owned by the Sultan of Brunei. This past summer, he interned for Trinity Hotel Investors, a global hospitality investment group, specializing in the underwriting and financial modeling for the company's current and prospective investments. During the academic year, Greg serves a teacher's assistant for a finance class and performs treasury services for his fraternity. This upcoming summer, Greg will be working at Barclays Capital as a Summer Analyst in their Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) division.
Ben Pu has been the Managing Director of CHC Hospitality Consultants since spring of 2008. He joined the firm under the leadership of the original founders. From 2006 through 2007, Ben established and directed the Information Technology department at CHC.
Ben specializes in Finance and Computer Science at Cornell University. In 2007, he worked on Google Checkout. In 2008, he built asset management tools and strategies for Palantir Technologies, and he interned at the quantitative hedge fund, KCM. Ben has also worked for a variety of technology firms throughout Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, Shanghai, and New York City. Ben will be joining the fund management group MDT Advisers in the summer of 2009.
At Cornell, Ben has acted as a teaching assistant for three courses. His research includes work at the Johnson School in securities pricing, projects in the engineering school on network theory, and he participates in the eRulemaking initiative in conjunction with the Cornell Law School.
Christa is a junior at the Hotel School of Administration. During her time at Cornell, she has received domestic and global, educational and working experiences. As a sophomore, Christa studied finance abroad in London winter of 2006, and went on to complete an Investment Banking (TMT) summer internship with DBS Bank in Singapore. Coming from a culturally stimulating background, Christa has always loved traveling and working with different people. Entering into the hospitality industry at age sixteen and working for companies such as Omni Hotels, Darden Restaurants, Cheesecake Factory, and Colonia Country Club, has given Christa a strong service oriented mindset and a strength in interpersonal relationships. Christa treasures her hospitality and finance background and intends on pursuing a finance concentration as well as a career in Investment Banking.
Lindsey is a senior concentrating in law at the Hotel School. Although she has much operational experience in the hospitality industry, Lindsey is more appropriately distinguished by her passion for the legal environment and industry-related research. As a published researcher, her work has received recognition since high school, including the Cornell Presidential Research Scholar and an Intel Science Talent Search Semi-Finalist. At the Hotel School, Lindsey continues to work with Professor Michael C. Sturman, her research advisor. Her most recent study, ‘Forty Hours Doesn’t Work for Everyone: Examining Employee Preferences for Work Hours,’ was published in the November 2008 edition of Cornell Hospitality Reports. In addition, Lindsey is the Senior Vice President and one of the founding fathers of Hospitality Law Society. Some of her additional work experience includes a legal internship at Ernst & Young, a legal advisor for the Nassau County Office of the County Executive, and a copyeditor and marketing analyst for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. After graduating from Cornell, Lindsey plans to attend law school and pursue her passion for hospitality law.
Vaib is a senior at the School of Hotel Administration, concentrating in Real Estate Finance and completing a minor in Information Science. In the summer of 2007, he gained valuable experience in consulting as an intern at a boutique consulting firm in New York, Marga Inc., where he was involved in engagements with a broad range of public and private sector organizations. In the previous summer, he gained valuable experience as a management intern for the Compass Group, a leading managed services firm. On campus, he is a tutor at the Communication Center, where he assists fellow students with their writing assignments, and has served as a TA for finance and accounting classes. Building on his summer experience at New York-based real estate advisory and brokerage firm DTZ Rockwood, Vaib will be joining Prudential Mortgage Capital as an analyst in July 2009.
Jessica is a junior at the Hotel School with interests in real-estate, finance, and statistics. Prior to her arrival at the Hotel School, she gained work experience at UBS Financial Services, Inc. in Weehawken, NJ in the Client Services department, helping to managing various off-shore client accounts. Her enthusiasm for business, however, was sparked when she was recognized for her achievements as a finalist on the five-member Federal Reserve Team at the Federal Reserve Challenge in New York City. As a college freshman, Jessica worked as an Accounting and Sales Intern at Luxoft USA, Inc., the American branch of Russia’s largest provider of high-end IT outsourcing services. During the school year, her dedication to her studies motivates Jessica to work alongside her professors teaching accounting, statistics, and managerial communication. Additionally, coming from a Russian background, Jessica frequently travels to Europe, and successfully completed an intensive one-month Wall Street Training Program in Switzerland this past summer. Along with travel, however, Jessica’s passions include tennis; piano; and, more recently, golf.