Susan (Lee) Furbay ‘96

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Susan (Lee) Furbay ‘96, Vice President of HVS, shares with us what it means to her to be a Hotelie for Life®.

Susan (Lee) Furbay ’96, her husband Troy, and their children Kaitlyn and Dylan.

“There are about half-dozen days in my life I will never forget: the day I immigrated from South Korea to the US, my wedding day, the days when our daughter and son were born and the day I received my acceptance letter from the Cornell Hotel School. For many, colleges are an extension of higher education where after graduation you attend homecoming for the first few years and then you receive requests for alumni donations in the mail. For me, what Cornell Hotel School has allowed for, with respect to my career, has been a wonderful blessing that is a part of me every day of my life. Over the last 22 years, my career has always been in the hotel industry in some form or another. Whether working as a broker at Eastdil specializing in hotel asset sales (where I met my husband while I was giving a hotel tour in NYC), or originating hotel loans at GE Capital, or in business development at HVS, I have constantly been in trenches with the fundamentals of the hotel economics, its people and the beauty of its real estate. Between my husband, Troy Furbay, who is the Chief Investment Officer at DiamondRock Hospitality, and me at HVS, our family is ‘long’ in the hotel industry. But we love what we do and, most importantly, the people we interact with every day. Even our eighth-grade daughter, Kaitlyn, has an eye on attending the Cornell in the future. I am so grateful to be a Hotelie and will continue to participate in alumni events, support the recent graduates and promote the Hotel School for its success and sustainability.”

Reneta and Mark McCarthy

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Reneta McCarthy ’84, MPS ’93 and Mark McCarthy ’86, MMH ’98, both Senior Lecturers at The Hotel School, share what it means to them to be Hotelies for Life®.

Mark ’86, Reneta ’84 and John ’89 McCarthy

(Reneta) “Sometimes I joke that I wasn’t a good Hotelie undergrad. I started at Cornell as a nutrition major and transferred into the hotel school, so I always felt like a bit of an outsider. That’s why, after working for Marriott for seven years, I came back to The Hotel School as a grad student, and that changed my life. I ended up as director of rooms at the Statler Hotel, where I met Mark my #hotelieloveforlife. Mark also received his undergrad from the hotel school… as did his father, Robert ’54, his brother John ’89 and his sister Jean ’92. That’s a true Hotelie family. When I started teaching in 1995 I had no idea I would spend the next 23 years teaching and learning from Hotelies and that twelve of those years would be as the faculty advisor for HEC! Mark got his masters from The Hotel School and started teaching, as well. For both of us it’s been such a privilege to work with and get to know such outstanding students, faculty, and staff. When asked if we have children we say, no, we don’t, but we have students! Our most significant relationships are with Hotelies. We truly are Hotelies for Life®!” #hotelieforlife #startedatstatler

(Reneta and Mark are pictured with Mark’s brother John McCarthy, Hotel ‘89.)

 

 

Jon Kimball ‘84

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Jon Kimball ‘84, Area General Manager – Northern California for Marriott International, shares with us what it means to him to be a Hotelie for Life®.

Jon Kimball ‘84, Area General Manager – Northern California for Marriott International

“My Hotelie roots remain with me to this day! The friendships and long-term relationships which I maintain are deeply connected to my time at Cornell. I often think about how those years truly shaped my career and love of the hospitality industry. As Hotelie alumni, we are especially fortunate to maintain that special bond. I am just so excited and thrilled to see my daughter, Sarah, enter Cornell and The Hotel School, knowing that she too will be Hotelie for Life!”

Sophia Lin Kanno ’05

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Sophia Lin Kanno ’05, Event Producer at Kehoe Designs and Vice President of the CHS Chicago chapter, shares with us what it means to her to be a “Hotelie for Life”:

“The Hotel School gave me lasting friendships, a stellar education and the Cornell reputation, but being a Hotelie is an opportunity to pay it forward. I have used my industry experience to plan events and alumni programs for CHS, and retu…rn to Cornell each year during HEC as a guest speaker. Meeting students on a personal level allows me to connect with their career curiosities as they seek the right fit for their skills and interests. As a Hotelie in special events and design, I strive to forge the path that helps others hone their passion and discover their way into this side of the hospitality industry. I am enriched by the love for hospitality in my fellow alumni, and look to inspire + open doors for others.” #payitforward #hotelieforlife

(Pictured at left, with CHS Chicago chapter President, Stacey Nadolny ’05 at CALC.)

Sophia Lin Kanno ’05 and Stacey Nadolny ’05

 

Phil Baugh ’96

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Phil Baugh ’96 shares what it means to him to be a “Hotelie for Life”:

“Initially, I thought that relationships with my fellow Cornell Hotelies were helping me grow in my career, but I did not realize how further impressed I would be by my Hotelies. In November 2014, I discovered I had brain cancer. I never expected this huge change in my life. But the support that my family and I got from Hotelies was amazing. I knew I was going to stay positive and my new motto was “Team Happy….”

I stayed in the hospital, and 4 days later I had 7.5 hours of surgery through which I was awake and working with my doctors as they cut out large pieces of my brain. From that moment, everything in my life changed. Because sections of my brain were now gone, I was reduced to the ability of a 1yo child. It took almost a year for me to get parts of my basic abilities back. Still today, I am rather challenged to speak well because large parts of my brain were removed.

Over those first months and continuing to today, news spread amongst Hotelies around the world and so many people have done wonderful things for me. There have been cards, emails, calls, and gifts from Hotelies, and sharing of their time. All I can say is that I am so encouraged to be fighting my disease with the help of my Hotelie friends.

So at 40, I was no longer going to develop my professional career. From that point on, I have committed to work every day to try and beat my brain cancer. There is still a long way to go as my brain cancer is still very active, but I am committed to beat it! Over the past 3.5 years, there have been so many Hotelies who have helped me in so many ways and I can’t thank them enough. I have been very happy to be in touch with Hotelies who care so much, like in the attached picture when Andrea Foster ‘96 and I met up in Milwaukee, WI.

Cornell Hotelies really are “incredible people.” The relationships I’ve built over all these years are what it means to me to be a Hotelie for Life.”

Phil Baugh ’96

Phil Baugh ’96 and Andrea Foster ’96

Sebastian Colella ‘05

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Sebastian Colella ‘05, Vice President of Pinnacle Advisory Group, shares with us what it means to him to be a Hotelie for Life.

“It is the close-knit community of alumni, students, friends, family, and professors that allow us to all remain Hotelies for Life. The Hotel School’s unique social nature helped me to foster life long friendships as an undergrad and the Cornell Hotel Society has enabled me to continue meeting like-minded professionals while living in DC, NYC, and now Boston. The school offers a set of tools that can be used in all walks of life and in any profession, primarily how best to serve others (and how to enjoy doing it!).”

Sebastian Colella ‘05 and family.

 

Mike Cahill ’84

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Mike Cahill ’84, CEO and Founder of HREC – Hospitality Real Estate Counselors and co-Founder of the Lodging Industry Investment Council (LIIC), shares what it means to him to be a Hotelie for Life®.

“Leaving the glorious cradle of Ithaca into the real world, we automatically join past and future generations of Statler Hall graduates and eagerly embark on building our individual lives. At that point, we learn to embrace the value of networking; seeking mentors to guide us and fellow Hotelies to support and grow with us. During this sojourn, we grapple with ‘the only constant in life is change’. As we age and grow, we learn to appreciate that Cornell Hotelies are always there for us, one of life’s few consistencies, as we change jobs, cities, and career paths. Regardless of whether you are 24 or 75, the Cornell Hotel School alumni network always greets you with open arms, immediate acceptance, and genuine care for your career and personal growth. Simply put: there is no superior, more passionate, and sincerely supportive collegiate alumni network outside being a ‘Hotelie for Life’. Cheers.”

Mike is pictured at the 2018 ICON & Innovator Dinner with Tim Hentschel ‘01, recipient of the 2018 Innovator of the Year Award, and rap artist Waka Flocka Flame.

Right to Left:  Mike, Waka Flocka Flame, Tim Hentschel ’01

Alan LeBlanc ’84

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Alan LeBlanc ’84, President & Chief Creative Officer of Brewed to Serve, shares with us what it means to him to be a Hotelie for Life®:

Alan LeBlanc ’84

Since graduating from Cornell in 1984, I have consulted in real estate, developed and operated a retirement community, developed office buildings in Moscow, Russia, and along with my wife Cindy and nephew John, built a restaurant company in Atlanta, GA. In each of these capacities, it has been the desire to seek excellence and to serve that the Hotel School helped refine that has made the difference. The understanding that leadership through service, and the obligation one has to treat all persons with professionalism and respect, is the spirit of a Hotelie for Life®.

Vickie Kozhushchenko ’96

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Vickie (Littler) Kozhushchenko ’96, Vice President – Human Resources for Clean Earth, Inc. shares with us what it means to her to be a Hotelie for Life®.

Vickie (Littler) Kozhushchenko ’96 (right) with Diana (Perkins) Hochkoeppler ‘95

“I’m a Hotelie for Life® for so many reasons. One primary reason is because everywhere I go, I look for opportunities (to paraphrase E.M. Statler) to ‘give a little more – a little better service’. People feel good and do good when they know you’re going the extra mile to help them out, whether it’s behind a front desk, behind a. stove, or behind the scenes in an organization – a lesson I learned early on in my Hotelie life from amazing people like Giuseppe, Cathy Enz and Bruce Tracey. It’s at the core of my decision to follow a career path in Human Resources and focus in on leadership development and career coaching, and it’s what I teach my two girls as we strive to help others locally and around the world.”

Julia Heyer ’00

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Julia Heyer ’00, Co-Founder and President of Heyer Performance, shares what it means to her to be a Hotelie for Life®.

Julia Heyer ’00

“A non-hotelie Cornellian friend of mine once said, ‘You join the Hotel School and you get indoctrinated into a cult.’ I prefer to think of it as the welcoming inclusion into a tribe – and I am grateful to be part of this exceptional group of open-hearted, hospitality-minded women and men. Across generations, continents, cultures and languages we not only share the collective experience of our university years – but also certain non-wallfloweresque personality traits and values, one of the strongest one being that Life Is Service to our guests, clients, colleagues, staff, and fellow Hotelies. Meeting up with classmates years after school and picking up right where we left of a decade earlier. Responding to inquiries and providing help when someone calls for a professional POV, or being privileged to have others share their insights when I may need it. There is the perk of getting great local advice from Hotelies on hotels, restaurants, and bars when travelling – as well as the pleasure of giving back to this community through involvement in the CHS and heading back up to the hill to help teach the next generation.

Being a  Hotelie for Life® is a point of pride; has shaped me in innumerable ways, big and small, professional and personal; and importantly it is not just something we are. It is about what we can do for each other: pushing each other to be better, to reach outside our comfort zones and the established norms of thinking; to drive our respective fields forward with spirited optimism, hospitality, humility, and a continuous drive for excellence.”