Owner, Horst Schulze Consulting
A legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Schulze’s teachings and vision have reshaped the concepts of service and hospitality across industries.
Mr. Schulze was one of the founding members of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company in 1983. There Mr. Schulze created the operating and service standards that have become world famous.
During his tenure at The Ritz-Carlton, Mr. Schulze served as President and COO responsible for the $2 billion operations worldwide. It was under his leadership that The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company was awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award- twice- making it the first and only hotel company to ever win even one.
In 1991, Mr. Schulze was recognized as “corporate hotelier of the world” by HOTELS Magazine. In 1995, he was awarded the Ishikawa Medal for his personal contributions to the quality movement.
After leaving The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Mr. Schulze went onto found The Capella Hotel Group. This luxury hotel company managed some of the most elite properties worldwide, and gave Mr. Schulze the opportunity to further define the luxury hotel industry, receiving countless awards and recognitions.
Today, Mr. Schulze serves on various boards and acts as a consultant across industries. He is currently completing his seminal book on creating excellence.
Many of the Ithaka values stem from Mr. Schulze, an individual who has been instrumental in the life and career of our founder, Hans van der Reijden. Hans spent 26 years working closely with Mr. Schulze, who imparted to Hans his wisdom in both life and career endeavors. A visionary in the hospitality industry, Mr. Schulze inspires everyone he meets with his wisdom, energy and positivity. He embodies the values and ethics we admire as individuals and as a company, which became our benchmark as we developed the Ithaka company ethos.
Founder, The BJH Group
Bruce Himelstein is credited with leading some of the travel and hospitality industry’s most prestigious domestic and global brands during a 30+ year illustrious career setting the global standards in hospitality, marketing, and C-level executive management. Successful at every level of his career, Bruce Himelstein now helps growing and established businesses achieve new levels of success as a marketing, hospitality industry, and luxury brand consultant, as well as a business facilitator. But more than just offering highly experienced and incredibly savvy consulting and facilitation services, Bruce is a well regarded professional speaker, most notably a hospitality speaker with a long history of highly successful event, conference, and keynote speeches through the Keppler Speakers Bureau, Washington Speakers Bureau, the Keynotes Organization, and a half dozen more prestigious speaking groups across the country.
Executive Managing Director, Specialty F&B, Entertainment & Hospitality Consulting
Phil Colicchio is an industry-leading expert in specialty food, beverage (F&B) and entertainment procurement. In his current role at Cushman & Wakefield, Phil provides his expertise to brokerage teams and other service lines to promote client-centric business development for existing developer, owner, investor, hotelier, resort and university clients around the country. Their strong relationships within both the F&B and entertainment communities serve as the currency that sets them apart in the era of newCommerce, and aid brokers as they assist their clients in building the right standout concept for their space.
Phil occupies a unique space in the worlds of hospitality, mixed use development, law and education. As a New York based attorney, Phil represented more than fifty James Beard Foundation Award winning Chefs, Restaurateurs, Beverage and Service Professionals, Restaurant Designers and Authors. Phil also advises professional and collegiate sports venue operators and large scale music festival promoters on strategies geared toward elevating the food and beverage experiences for all levels of clientele.
Founded in 2008, his Colicchio Consulting, LLC expanded in 2017 to include the development of intimate venues to meet the demand for experiencing live performance in familiar retail, hotel and Food Hall environments.
Shareholder, Baker Donelson
Katie is outside legal counsel to Ithaka Hospitality and brings to the table a breadth of expertise developed over more than 25 years as legal counsel to large and small companies. Katie works with executives across industries on strategic business opportunities including acquisitions, joint ventures, licenses and management agreements, including matters with hospitality companies such as Marriott and the Inter-Continental Hotel Group. During the course of her career, Katie worked as the Sr. Vice President of Corporate Development with a fortune 50 healthcare company and as outside general counsel to a healthcare IT company. Katie is partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Baker Donelson.
Founder, JEM International
Ed Marvine is the founder of JEM International, a development and facility consulting company that works on primarily hotel and resort mixed use projects. His company brings expertise to hospitality developments, renovations, and facility operations for hotel owners and operators. From 2013 to 2015, Marvine took the position as Senior Vice President of Design and Program Management for Commune Hotels and Resorts. He and his team provided technical services for all Thompson and Joie De Vivre Hotels across the United States. Marvine previously worked for W.B. Johnson International. In his capacity as Executive Vice President, Development, he was responsible for design and construction of new hotels, residences and facilities. For ten years he served as Executive Vice President of Design and Project Management for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. In this capacity, Marvine was responsible for design, facility maintenance and project management activities on Ritz-Carlton hotels, interval ownerships, private clubs and residences worldwide.
Chief Operating Officer, The Greenbrier
Elmer is a life-long hotelier and entrepreneur, who is presently the Chief Operating Officer of The Greenbrier and Managing Partner of The Resort at Glade Springs, both in West Virginia.
Since 2003 Elmer is President & CEO of EMCO Hospitality, a hotel management company and currently the operating company of The Resort at Glade Springs in West Virginia. For the last eight years he also serves as COO of The Greenbrier. In addition, he is on the Board of Governors of West Virginia University and Board Chair of its Strategic Initiatives Committee. He also is a board member for the World Cancer Research Fund based in Washington DC, London, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.
Elmer is an international hotelier with an undergraduate degree from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland, and a graduate degree in Marketing from the Netherlands Institute of Marketing. He also studied Hotel Finance at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
In 2010 he successfully founded Snowball, LLC a Web Management and Digital Marketing company based in Bethesda, which he sold in 2016. Prior to this he was a development partner and Executive Vice President & COO at SynXis Corporation, a company specialized in developing Central Reservation software for hotels based on Internet Technology presently used by over 30,000 hotels worldwide. Prior to that, he was a part-owner and President of Lancaster Hotels and Resorts, an international company with a dozen luxury properties. Lancaster Hotels was a co-founder of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, currently a collection of over 600 hotels. Elmer has also held senior management positions with the Sheraton Corporation and Sonesta Hotels and Resorts during his 40 years in the hotel business.
He and his wife, Mary Jo, live in White Sulphur Springs, WV and have four grown children and two grandchildren.
Chief Executive Officer, Ulyssia Residences AG
Alain has more than 30 years’ experience in the luxury hospitality, cruise, yachting and residential private club industries for names including Relais et Chateaux, The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, Cunard Line Ltd, Royal Viking Line, Seabourn, and The World – Residences at Sea. Alain specializes in new concept development, talent acquisition, luxury hospitality and marine operations. His expertise drives innovation, quality, consistency and customer satisfaction in highly competitive, international markets.
Alain is a founding member of Ulyssia Residences AG, a Swiss-based development company specializing in integrated real estate and ocean living, state-of-the-art ship designs, high-end ocean living concepts, purpose driven lifestyle communities, bespoke travel and life-changing authentic experiences. Ulyssia Residences AG is currently developing the finest residential superyacht community in the world.
Fellow, Talent Plus
When organizations seek to create breakthroughs, they turn to Larry Sternberg, one of the most innovative thinkers in human resources today. Sternberg’s teaching ability and sense of humor give him the reputation as one of the most talented and effective speakers in the country. A longtime champion of Talent Plus, Sternberg utilized The Science of Talent ® in his roles prior to joining Talent Plus as vice president of human resources with The Portman Hotel Company and as a general manager with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. He pioneered self-directed work teams, achieving remarkable improvements in financial results, guest satisfaction and employee satisfaction and the approach was described in the book “Turned On: Eight Vital Insights to Energize Your People, Customers and Profits” by Roger Dow and Susan Cook. Sternberg’s strategies have twice been studied by Harvard.
Former Executive Vice President/CFO, Auburn University
Don’s career spans 40 years with the first 10 serving in various roles with the international audit, consulting and advisory firm, Deloitte, and the last 30 years in higher education with Auburn University. As a CPA, Large served all ranges of companies from small to Fortune 500 and many types from manufacturing, service, retail, banking, construction, and higher education.
An opportunity to come back to his alma mater led Don to Auburn University, where he served initially as Controller for the university for 5 years before assuming the VP for Business and Finance/CFO role. He served in the position of Executive Vice President for his last 20 years at Auburn before retiring in 2018. Don’s various roles and oversight responsibilities at Auburn University and experiences cover almost every aspect of the business functions, administration, communications, branding, and service to the university and community. He has served on various Boards from corporations, hospitals, city school board, state retirement systems, and 501(c) 3’s.
One key focus for Don over the last 20 plus years has been the hospitality operations of Auburn University. His oversight responsibility for the university of it’s hotel and conference operations was instrumental in assuming the lead role for the university in pursuing a world class culinary science center recently approved by the Auburn Board of Trustees.
Co-founder, Managing Member, Heartrock LLC
Heartrock Hospitality Accounting has been successfully serving clients for 20 years, and was built upon Paula Peterson’s previous 20 years in the hotel accounting arena. Paula’s expertise lies in the high end, boutique and luxury markets, which demand a unique approach to accounting and driving profits as the guest’s expectations are as high as the owner’s expectations.
Paula’s mission is to provide focused, unparalleled support to management companies and owners alike through the varied transitions hotels undergo. She has participated in more than two dozen openings/ management transitions/change of ownership.
Paula is able to step into positions and produce results with no time wasted through adaptability to various back office systems, locales, personnel, etc. Along with this she brings with her a foundational knowledge built on a decade with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as Director of Finance and a previous smaller hotel management company in the same position.
Chef and Managing Partner, Ford Fry Restaurants
Ford Fry and his restaurants have been included in numerous national and local publications, such as Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Chicago Tribune, Cooking Light, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Esquire, Food & Wine, Garden & Gun, Sky, Southern Living and the Washington Post. In January of 2007, Fry put down roots in Atlanta with the opening of his first restaurant – JCT. Kitchen & Bar – a place that’s as warm and friendly as its owner. The menu at JCT. is reminiscent of traditional family favorites and features ingredients from regional fields and farms.
Fry’s restaurants include BeetleCat, JCT. Kitchen & Bar, King + Duke, Marcel, no. 246, The El Felix, The Optimist and Oyster Bar at The Optimist, State of Grace, St. Cecilia, Superica and La Lucha.
All of Fry’s restaurants have a few things in common: they’re as formal as guests want them to be; they’re chef owned and operated; they’re committed to their communities; and they serve exceptional food made with local ingredients in casual environments where a great deal of attention is paid to detail. However, each restaurant has its own unique identity. Along with his roles at his restaurants, Fry is also the founder of one of Atlanta’s most popular food events, the Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival. This annual event features some of the South’s best chefs and mixologists, who are paired with local farmers to create innovative tomato dishes.
Executive Search Recruiter, Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace
25 plus years of hospitality experience in opening and operating some of the top rated resorts/hotels in the world.
Held titles of Executive Chef in various luxury operations. To include resorts, city hotels and private club containing various food and beverage concepts and services
Corporate Chef-Vice President, Culinary Ritz-Carlton Hotel, with special oversite of culinary operations, recruitment, strategies and inititives. Special focus on concepts, partnership with 3rd party operations with financial assessments for successful implementation. Member of the brand that doubled development in all corners of the world, strong focus in China and Middle East.
Hotel Manager, Food & Beverage, Spa & Rooms Division. Responsible for the day to day operations to include asset management partnership, sales strategies, creation of annual budgets, hotel remodel and development
Vice President, Food & Beverage, MGM oversight of 24 individual or partner owned food and beverage experiences within this business model. Casino consisted of 4 individual hotels under one umbrella with 7000 plus rooms. Responsible to communication, and partner with many highly rated world chefs, and operators. As well as the development of new concepts and strategies to assist with hotel guest satisfaction. Submissions of many concepts for Board of directors to review and approve
Group Director, Food and Beverage, Shangri-La, Global scope with special attention in mainland China and Asia. Oversite of all operational,development and execution for 75 hotels and 50 plus under development in all market segments and locations. Three brands under one parent company with unique and specialized customer requirements. Development of 200 concepts within brand.
Chief Executive Officer for at-sunrice Global Chefs Academy with oversight of all functions and business strategies for this private educational business.
Owner, Miura Vineyards
Emmanuel Kemiji is a Master Sommelier and owner of Miura Vineyards. Kemiji acted as Ritz-Carlton Director of Wine & Spirits from 1988 to 1999, first at Laguna Niguel and then at the renowned Dining Room in San Francisco. In 1989, Kemiji became the twelfth American to pass the Master Sommelier exam in London, England and one of the very few to pass on his first attempt. In the same year, he received the “Sommelier of the Year” award by the California Restaurant Writers Association. Seeking further challenges led Kemiji to form Miura Vineyards in 1995. Soon to follow were several projects in Spain – Arrels in 2003 and Clos Pissarra in 2005. He thus became the first sommelier to establish a commercial winery in the United States. The San Francisco Chronicle named Kemiji as one of the “10 Winemakers to Watch for 2000.” In 2006, Kemiji received the Wine Industry Achievement Award from the Anti-Defamation League for exemplary commitment to community and charity.
