Updates from the Directors

As we prepare to close out the 2024-25 academic year, I wish to express profound gratitude to everyone who extended a kind, welcoming hand as I transitioned to the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE) on January 1st and continue to lend generous support as I settle into my new role as Executive Director.

The steadfast support and guidance from our Advisory Board, industry partners, members, collaborators and friends of PIHE helped us to deliver a semester of successful programming. Through new and ongoing collaborative partnerships, we hosted sixteen entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs); staged two industry roundtables focused on restaurant development and women and entrepreneurship; hosted a student speed networking event and a graduate-undergraduate peer social; and led the annual business plan competition, pitch deck competition, and hospitality hackathon. To promote interdisciplinary and community engagement, our directors delivered hospitality entrepreneurship guest talks to first-generation Nolan and Dyson undergraduates in the Accelerator Scholars Program and to student members of the Community Impact Club.

These programs and events helped PIHE to fulfill its goal of enriching students’ experiential learning and engagement with hospitality entrepreneurship; but don’t take my word for it. Hear directly from our student entrepreneurs who, as part of Cornell’s 2025 Giving Day campaign, shared about the impact PIHE had on their entrepreneurship learning journey. Listen here.

In Fall 2025, we will welcome new and returning EIRs to our Ithaca campus and host various student entrepreneurship competitions. With a renewed focus on applied innovation and entrepreneurship, we will offer an inaugural student ideation challenge and host an industry panel to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week, November 17th – 23rd.

Looking ahead to 2026, PIHE will celebrate 20 years of supporting hospitality entrepreneurship learning and engagement. To mark this historic milestone, several new programs, events, and initiatives will be launched to celebrate past accomplishments and chart new and exciting pathways for furthering hospitality entrepreneurship and innovation thought leadership at Cornell. We will deepen our online presence with on-demand programming, digital media, and curated artefacts; launch our student-inspired EIR “Star” trek; and host an inaugural hospitality innovation “futures” summit. Our goal is to celebrate two decades of programs, people, and partnerships; challenge knowledge boundaries around generative AI and entrepreneurship; and co-create bold and innovative thought leadership in support of Mary and Lee’s vision for hospitality entrepreneurship at Cornell.

We invite you to watch this space for updates and join us for what promises to be truly exciting times at PIHE in the months ahead!

As the end of the calendar year is upon us, it signals a time of reflection and a period of change, both personally and professionally. We take time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, where we may have fallen short, and, of course, what’s next in the coming year. Personally, I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship.

This fall, we’ve had so many meaningful moments that truly communicated the essence of hospitality entrepreneurship.

In collaboration with others, we completed/achieved the following:

• We presented the Hospitality Hackathon with Hilton (71 student participants) and ran the Hospitality Pitch Deck Competition (24 student teams).
• We hosted a “Restaurant Entrepreneurship & Development” roundtable, bringing together over 24 entrepreneurs to discuss the current factors impacting restaurant operations, new opportunities for value creation, and plans for the future of the industry.
• We held a networking event for current and aspiring undergraduate and graduate student entrepreneurs—all of which opened up creativity, innovation, and important conversation around hospitality entrepreneurship.
• We welcomed six Entrepreneurs in Residence to campus this semester. They spent time meeting with students, offering business development advice, and sharing insights on networking and careers. They also spoke in classes, held fireside and coffee chats, met with student clubs, and judged competitions and class presentations, providing invaluable feedback to students.
• We offered the “Conversations with Entrepreneurs” class. Over the semester, students engaged with 12 entrepreneurs who shared their knowledge on everything from product development with customer input to scaling the business and raising funds from venture capital investors.
• And we kicked off the Hospitality Business Plan Competition with 27 teams (77 students) applying to compete this year. I’m excited about the diversity of business ideas submitted for the hospitality entrepreneurship space.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to welcome our new executive director in January, whose leadership will further strengthen our mission and impact.

All these moments reinforce a core value of hospitality entrepreneurship—the importance of human connection.

Cheers to an exciting year ahead!

Christy McDowell

Interim Executive and Academic Director

Welcome to the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE), the entrepreneurial hub of the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. In our role as directors, we steward the institute and execute the vision of our founders, Lee ’69 and Mary Pillsbury and our Advisory Board and serve as an integral component of Cornell’s tradition as an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.

PIHE has three missions tethered to the common goal of incubating and promoting entrepreneurial excellence in the hospitality industry. As an educational institute, our first mission is to guide and inspire the innovators of tomorrow, our students. Additionally, PIHE is a community where our board, our students and other hospitality entrepreneurs collaborate and innovate. Third, our faculty and staff consistently confront questions at the forefront of the hospitality industry and develop new theories regarding the path to entrepreneurial success.

Our programming is the conduit through which PIHE accomplishes its missions.  Our Entrepreneurs in Residence program brings successful entrepreneurs from across the country to Ithaca to work with our student entrepreneurs.  Additionally, PIHE offers three annual hospitality entrepreneurship competitions including a hackathon, a pitch deck competition, and a business plan competition and we produce several roundtable events annually where faculty, professionals and students discuss pertinent topics at the vanguard of hospitality entrepreneurship.

In the future, we will emphasize incubating and developing student businesses from concept through creation via a series of modifications to existing programs and curriculum. Also, there are new and exciting programs under development. Whether you are student, an alumnus or a hospitality entrepreneur, we invite you to contact us and connect.

As we say goodbye to an exceptional semester brimming with innovation, collaboration, and remarkable achievements, I extend to you a warm welcome as we collectively embrace the spirit of the holidays and eagerly step into an electrifying 2024! Reflecting on the past semester, I am inspired by the passion and dedication from students and staff alike. Their relentless pursuit of excellence has illuminated pathways to success and fostered an environment of boundless creativity.

Looking ahead, 2024 promises an exhilarating array of events, initiatives, and programs filled with opportunities to learn, network, and push the boundaries of hospitality entrepreneurship. From groundbreaking initiatives to riveting speakers and mentors, the Pillsbury Institute is poised to achieve new goals, reach new milestones and mark its place atop the entrepreneurial community.

As we immerse ourselves in this festive season, let’s celebrate the achievements that shaped the institute in 2023. May the holidays infuse us all with renewed energy and zeal to conquer new milestones in the upcoming year. Here’s to a 2024 filled with endless possibilities, inspiration, and collective triumphs.

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season and a New Year sparkling with hope, growth, and unparalleled success!

Yours truly,
Rob Gregor

Greetings,

The Pillsbury Institute continues to bustle with activity. In August, we welcomed more than one-hundred students, faculty, alumni and mentors to our annual open house. Also, our Entrepreneur in Residence mentorship program continues to receive significant student engagement as we welcome fifteen thought-leading entrepreneurs to Ithaca to guide our students’ start-ups.

In September, we co-sponsored the Future of Restaurants panel in Irvine, California with the Cornell Hotel Society.  The event brought together an esteemed panel of thought leaders to discuss what restaurants will look like in the future, and how digitization and automation will grow the industry. We welcomed Rob Karp ’19, founder of Miles Ahead, a luxury travel agency, back to campus for a discussion on the intersection of luxury travel and entrepreneurship.

In October, we partnered with Hilton Hotels for our annual Hospitality Hackathon. Thanks to the generous gifts of Aethos Consulting Group and its co-founder, Keith Kefgen ’84 and Gusto AI Tech and its co-founders, Franco Mora de Regil, MBA ’12 and Jack Chen ‘00, we hosted a Welcome Reception and a Winner’s Dinner for the Hackathon.

We expect that November will be busy as well. Our Pitch Deck Competition returns on November 7^th. On November 13^th, the Pillsbury Institute and the Center for Hospitality Research will co-host the Hospitality Innovators Roundtable in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As you can see, great things are happening here at the Institute. Thank you for the opportunity to serve in this capacity and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or to discuss engagement opportunities.

Yours Truly,
Rob Gregor

Welcome Back to Campus!

The energy that comes with our students’ return to campus is palpable. As summer gives way to fall, our focus shifts from planning the academic year to executing. In that respect, the Pillsbury Institute has a tremendous semester planned, starting with our open house on Thursday, August 31^st from 4:30 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. in Statler 189. Also, the Entrepreneur in Residence mentorship program returns with fifteen entrepreneurs joining us on campus to work with, and mentor, our students. In October, we will partner with Hilton Hotels for our annual Hospitality Hackathon. Thanks to the generous gift of Keith Kefgen ’84, we will host an evening reception the night before the Hackathon for advisory board members, mentors, faculty and members of the Pillsbury Institute team. Additionally, the Pillsbury Institute is pleased to host the Winner’s Dinner on the Monday following the Hackathon.

November is busy as well. Our Pitch Deck competition, where student teams ideate and pitch their hospitality business to a panel of judges for cash prizes returns on November 7th. Also, on November 13^th, the Pillsbury Institute and the Center for Hospitality Research co-host the Hospitality Innovators roundtable in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is going to be a great semester! On a personal note, thank you to our advisory board and the Nolan School for making the first months of my Executive Directorship so special.  The Pillsbury Institute, along with the Nolan School and Cornell University are extraordinarily special places and I am humbled to play a part.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or if you are interested in sponsoring any of our amazing programs.

Yours Truly,
Rob Gregor

Greetings from Ithaca and Happy 15^th Birthday PIHE!!
As we are learning to “live” with COVID, PIHE has returned to its traditional programming. In the fall, we once again hosted the Hilton Hackathon, the Pitch Deck Competition and, of course, had a series of Entrepreneurs in Residence – including an amazing dinner with Meli James ’00 and Ellen Yui, P ’14 & P ’16. This spring we were able to have an in person Business Plan Competition and were thrilled with the quality of our student submissions and thankful for our slate of judges. We also created the foundation of an Emerging Entrepreneurs Network and created several classes. As the new fiscal year begins, we look forward to setting a new pace, continuing our traditional programing, and developing new initiatives and activities. As always, we thank Lee and Mary Pillsbury, our Board of Directors and all the other friends of the institute for their contributions – we look forward to a great 22-23 year!!

-David Sherwyn and Linda Canina
Academic Co-Directors, PIHE

As we wind down in Ithaca, we wish to thank our Board Members and other stakeholders for making the Pillsbury Institute a success in trying times. Despite limitations on travel and in School events, PIHE was able to have another event filled semester. Our kick-off in September had such a large turnout that we were forced to move from the 130 seat classroom to the 800 seat auditorium – scrambling for space never felt so good! Our Pitch Deck competition began with 30 teams and our judges helped narrow it down to the top four. Our Hospitality Hackathon with Hilton and Salesforce/Tableau featured 22 teams comprising over 100 students who spent an entire weekend working on solving several challenging issues our industry has been facing since the start of the pandemic. It was thrill to watch the student’s energy and commitment. We now look forward to our Business Plan Competition which is underway and promises to bring more innovative and interesting ideas. All of these activities are supported by our Entrepreneurs in Residence Program where 13 professionals interacted and met with more than 150 students. Next semester we hope to continue with current and new initiatives. We thank you for all your support and wish you a Happy Holiday and joyful New Year!

-Linda Canina and David Sherwyn
Academic Co-Directors, PIHE

Welcome to the new edition of PIHE Pulse, a newsletter produced by the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE) at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. The updated look and feel of this newsletter will continue to provide you with the institute updates you’ve come to expect, but we will also focus on highlighting Cornell alumni and students who are making their mark on the hospitality industry, as well as provide you with some of the latest industry news on entrepreneurship and innovation. As always, you can look here for our upcoming events and to discover new ways to engage with us.

The spring semester is quickly coming to a close, and while this has been a year like no other, we were fortunate to have thrived in new, innovative ways. Our virtual world gave us the opportunity to engage with so many more industry leaders and alumni, greatly expanding our students’ access to brilliant mentors from all parts of the hospitality industry and the globe. With the click of a button, our Entrepreneurs in Residence could instantly connect with their student mentees over Zoom and offer additional and more flexible office hours, providing more time for deep and meaningful connections.

This year, we also introduced new programming, including the revival of the Conversations with Entrepreneurs course; a new course – Key Drivers for Making Innovation Happen; and, the brand new Experiential Networking Program—all three were highly acclaimed by the students and will return in the next academic year. Many of our in-person events were transformed into keynote webinars, featuring our board members, faculty experts, and other industry leaders, reaching an audience of over 6,000 viewers. And our signature annual event, the Hospitality Business Plan Competition, will once again be taking place virtually in a few days on Saturday, May 1st. Be sure to tune-in to watch the final teams compete for the grand prize of $25,000!

The year has truly been a whirlwind. Despite the challenges faced by so many, the amount of engagement from our students and the industry has been incredible and much more than we could have ever imagined—we thank each and every one of you for your continued support of PIHE. Of course, our successes would not have been possible without the unwavering support and dedication of our advisory board members and industry partners, and for them, we are so grateful.

We hope you will enjoy the PIHE Pulse!

-Linda Canina and David Sherwyn
Academic Co-Directors, PIHE

As one of the strangest semesters in Cornell history winds down, we are pleased to report on the recent activities of PIHE. First, we would like to give a shout out to Cornell — Cornell has done an incredible job managing the pandemic. With robust testing and students understanding, and complying with social distancing rules, we were consistently testing at .01% positivity rate – a testament for all involved!

As for PIHE, with most of the classes remote, with many students residing outside of Ithaca, and with those in Ithaca limited by social distancing, it was certainly a challenge to maintain our level of engagement. We believe that we did so – in fact, we are offering even more opportunities for engagement than we did last year.

First, we resurrected our Conversations with Entrepreneurs Class. With the incredible effort of Board member Jacob Wright, we changed the class’ structure such that students needed to come up with a business idea and then each speaker took the students through the phases of business development. From idea, to first source of financing, to legal structure, to pivot, growth, to exit (and all the other steps in between) our Board members and other friends of PIHE provided the students with an incredible learning experience.

With the help of members Stacy Silver, Bob DeVries, Warren Leeds, and Chad Crandall, we kicked off the  Experiential Networking Program, where 16 industry mentors and 80 students have teamed up in an effort to expand student’s life and networking skills so they can further develop their knowledge to help them succeed in business and life.

Despite the limitations of being remote, we ran an incredibly successful pitch-deck competition. With 25 teams entered, Andrew Quagliata worked with Judges Bob Alter, Warren Leeds and Monica Digilio to analyze the final four teams. Our winners were: 3^rd place ($500) Team Life After Life; 2^nd place ($1,500) Team Ultraviolet Transactions; and 1^st place ($3,000) Team WEET. We look forward to our business plan competition where we have 33 teams registered!

The Entrepreneurs in Residence Program has been another success. This fall we had 10 EIR’s including Board Members: Michael Frenkel, Allison Page, Danny Stein, Fred Singer, and Jacob Wright. Our Board Members held over 30 meetings with students. Thank you!

The Spring semester looks like it will continue to be remote, but we hope to be back to a live semester in the Fall. In the meantime, with the help of our Board and our students, PIHE will continue to foster the entrepreneurial spirit that has been the hall mark of the Hotel School for over 90 years!

Linda and Dave

It has been over three months since Cornell, and much of the rest of the world, shut down. First and foremost, we hope that those who are reading this are safe and healthy and that their families are as well. At this point, it is inevitable that we all know people who have been infected and many of us have lost friends and family – our condolences to all who have suffered a loss.

While the pandemic runs its course, our industry has been decimated. The Hotel School has been active with webinars on, among others, the applicability of new and old laws, real estate workouts, the expected needs of guests and staff as we open back up. With the United States, and the rest of the world, beginning to reopen with new restrictions and constraints, it is the time when entrepreneurs step up. Many of the best initiatives and start-ups develop during economic downturns and times of crisis. From selling, delivering and using excess food and other supplies as if it they were grocery stores to creating their own delivery systems, restaurateurs are looking for ways to stay afloat. Hotels are in a similar mode and there are numerous avenues for innovators to create products and systems that will make guests and employees feel safe in our properties. From conferences, business travel, celebratory functions, and major sports and entertainment events, many of the most common draws to hotels are in question – innovators will lead people back to hotels and ensure that they feel, and they are, safe. Innovative architects may reimage large conferences centers if it turns out that large conferences become a relic.

We at the Pillsbury Institute look forward to facilitating this next wave of innovation. Along with our Board, we will soon be hosting webinars and providing other forms of content that will explore the needs of the Industry, guests, employees, vendors, and other stakeholders. We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and take a moment to watch this year’s Business Plan Competition video. We also hope you will join us for our future webinars, and we hope we can be a resource for those with innovative ideas to help bring the greatest industry in the world back and stronger from this unprecedented time.

Linda and Dave

Welcome to the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE)!  Six months ago the two of us were excited with the opportunity to become co-directors of the PIHE. The Institute has been in existence for over a decade and we are thankful for all of the hard work and accomplishments of our predecessors who provided us with a strong organization to continue and expand.

The Pillsbury Institute is tasked with a multi-facetted mission. First, and foremost, PIHE strives to provide students at Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, the SC Johnson College of Business, and the greater University, with the opportunity to learn about, and engage in, entrepreneurial theory, thinking, and activities.  We do this by engaging  with our board members and other friends and colleagues who share their expertise with students through one on one meetings, panel discussions, and work-related mentoring.  In addition, we hold a series of competitions (e.g. business plans and pitch decks), hackathons, classes, and roundtables to further educate and connect students, faculty, and heads of industry.  In addition to working with students, it is our goal to be a home of entrepreneurial thought for the hospitality industry through research, roundtables and conferences.  Entrepreneurship is an academic discipline, a career, an ideal, and most of all is it is a mind-set that drives innovation as the heart and soul of the economy.  There is no more important activity for a university  than to create an atmosphere where students develop their entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurs can rely upon a forum to engage and collaborate with other like- (and not-so-like) minded colleagues.  We are honored and humbled to be part of such an important institute.

We are thrilled with the success of last semester’s hackathon sponsored by Hilton and featured in Hotel Business, the pitch deck competition, and the beginning stages of the business plan competition. We are so thankful to all the entrepreneurs who donated their time to our students by serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence or as a judge during the fall competitions. As we move into the spring, we are excited about the culmination of the business plan competition, our innovation course in NYC, and planning our first roundtable. We sincerely appreciate all of your  support, and hope to grow the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship with you.

Linda and Dave

January 2019 Director’s Welcome – video link

For students, faculty, administrators, and the Pillsbury Institute alike, the close of the academic year is often an odd mix of frenzied activity and quiet reflection. This year is no exception. In just the last several weeks, Pillsbury has successfully conducted two industry roundtables and two speed networking events; hosted close to a dozen Entrepreneurs in Residence; and sponsored a two-day competition in which students were challenged to come up with innovative uses in the hospitality industry for a humanoid (and adorable) robot, Pepper. These activities, some of which are featured in more detail below, were just part of the many programs the institute carried on throughout the year.

Aside from all the activity, this time of year is also one of reflection, particularly this year, as Pillsbury celebrates its tenth anniversary. On a personal level, I am once again filled with a sense of pride and, well, awe at the incredible accomplishments of our current and former students, just a few of whom are featured herein. It truly is a privilege to teach, mentor, critique, and support them in their many entrepreneurial efforts.

Equally impressive is the impact that the Pillsbury Institute has had in its ten short years in existence. During that time, the institute has been a driving force in developing and formalizing the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the Hotel School and at Cornell. While the school has long had entrepreneurship in its DNA, the Pillsbury Institute has played a key role in encouraging that nascent culture to develop into a full curriculum supported by year-round programming that helps translate classroom learning into real world experience. The impact on students from these efforts cannot be emphasized enough. While it may not always be apparent to those of you who support the institute from afar, it is clear to those of us on the front lines. A week does not go by without me hearing from a current student or recent alumni that participating in a competition, meeting with an inspiring alumni, taking a course, learning a lesson, surviving a tough assignment, or some other aspect of the entrepreneurship offerings at the Hotel School “changed me” or “changed my life.”

Importantly, I also reflect on the fact that this curriculum and programming, which serves students from across the university, could not happen without the support of entrepreneurial alumni, industry leaders, expert faculty, and exceptional staff. Thank you for the continuously generous support that so many of you have provided this year to both the Pillsbury Institute and our students. As we look ahead to next year, I hope that we will see many of you in person, perhaps at one of our two recurring competitions (the PitchDeck Competition and the Hospitality Business Plan Competition), as an Entrepreneur in Residence, as a guest speaker in class, at a speed-networking event, at a roundtable, or in a Pillsbury board meeting. If there is a way to get you involved, we welcome it.

One final note: as I took on the role of Interim Director of the Pillsbury Institute this semester, I have been particularly grateful for the support of Michelle Ciaschi, our new assistant program manager. She is assisted by Erica Heim—program manager, and Leslee Kane—administrative assistant. For those of you that don’t know Michelle, Erica, and Leslee, I encourage you to stop by and say hello to them next time you are on campus.

Susan Fleming, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Interim Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for
Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE) and Hospitality Business Plan Competition Faculty Sponsor

In celebration of the tenth year of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship, I am reflecting on the development of the institute and ten things that I am most thankful for as we define our goals for the next decade of entrepreneurial impact.

Entrepreneurship is Everywhere

Entrepreneurship is everywhere. Our focus for the semester has been to seek out entrepreneurial opportunities within SHA and build growth into our operations design. With the launch of the Pillsbury Faculty Ambassador Program, we have been able to engage and unite faculty across disciplines at SHA in support of our entrepreneurial efforts at the Pillsbury Institute. Faculty members in this effort are Benjamin Lawrence, Mark McCarthy, Amy Newman, Andrew Quagliata, Stephani Robson, Cheryl Stanley, Neil Tarallo, and Jeanne Varney. Together, they have designed opportunities to engage students, faculty, alumni, and entrepreneurial leaders in their projects, further increasing our ability to support SHA’s entrepreneurial curriculum. We also welcomed Jennifer VanAtta, assistant program manager, to our team to help support our growing operations.

As the result of the increased levels of student interest in entrepreneurship at SHA, we have seen increases in demand for entrepreneurship classes and in the number of students actively pursuing the entrepreneurship concentration. I am looking forward to teaching a new course this spring called Global Conversations with Entrepreneurs. It is the twelfth entrepreneurship course offered at SHA, and it purposefully adds a global lens to our entrepreneurial education offerings. We participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week this year via partnering with the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University for a Virtual Ambassador Program. Kåre R. Aas, the Norwegian ambassador to the United States, presented on Girls’ Education as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week and International Education Week. The ambassador gave a brief presentation about some of Norway’s top priorities via webcam, and then conducted an engaging dialogue with the students.

With the launch of Gallup’s Entrepreneurial Profile 10 (EP10) Assessment Facilitations, we have provided the opportunity for all freshmen and transfer students to be able to identify and understand their top entrepreneurial talents. Further, EP10 allows us to help incoming students more effectively navigate a path to incorporate entrepreneurship opportunities from the start of their experience at SHA.

We continue to rely on the support and efforts of so many talented entrepreneurial alumni and industry leaders who work with us to make a difference in the entrepreneurial journeys of students. With the help of ten Entrepreneurs-in-Residence and over thirty Advisory Board members, we continue to brainstorm paths forward to be able to meet the increased student demand and create innovative programming that is engaging on many levels. Our Meet and Repeat Speed Networking event, for instance, continues to be a popular and highly energetic event for both students and alumni.

As the holiday season approaches, I hope everyone has an opportunity to find time for reflection. Further, I hope as resolutions for 2016 are crafted, that you will consider engaging with us at the Pillsbury Institute. There are a tremendous number of ways to get involved in the spring 2016 semester. You can learn more on our newly launched website at pihe.cornell.edu or filling out the engagement form.

I am very excited about what 2016 will bring for us at the Pillsbury Institute. What would have to happen in order to make 2016 the best year ever?

Many thanks for your continued support for entrepreneurship at SHA,

Mona Anita K. Olsen ’04, PhD
Associate Academic Director, Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship
| Assistant Professor | Committee Chair, International Academic Partnership Program Norway at Cornell

In December, with the support and advice from many faculty and entrepreneurial leaders, the School of Hotel Administration (SHA) launched an entrepreneurship concentration for students. The 12-credit concentration features a mix of required and elective courses that are set up to expose students to academic curriculum that serves as a foundation for their entrepreneurial journeys both during their time as students and also as graduates. With ten courses in entrepreneurship at SHA taught by five faculty members, the courses also feature guest lectures from entrepreneurs.

The entrepreneurship concentration is directly aligned with our mission to support the academic entrepreneurial curriculum of SHA. With an increased student interest in entrepreneurship education, new course offerings are currently in development. It is important that we maintain a delicate balance of focus in our offerings yet scale to meet the increasing demand for entrepreneurship courses.

Recently, SHA obtained AACSB’s unit-level accreditation. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is the longest-serving accrediting body for business schools, accrediting fewer than 5 percent of the world’s business programs. The AASCB International Accreditation opens up the possibility for us to pursue a ranking in the future. Further, the entrepreneurship concentration strategically aligns to complement the programming offered as part of our experiential learning and engagement opportunities.

We hope you will become engaged as we aim to create opportunities that will make a difference in the global hospitality industry. Visit our website to learn more about getting involved.

Best regards,

Mona Anita K. Olsen, PhD, SHA ‘04
Assistant Academic Director, The Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship
Visiting Assistant Professor

Leveraging Education to Create Opportunity

Our focus has been around creating opportunity by leveraging educational resources in our ecosystem. With an entrepreneurial vision that is focused around value creation, we give a strategic context for all the knowledge we share and create within the Cornell community. When we do that, we build something that is sustainable and honors our students, graduates, faculty, staff, and industry partners who fully engage in enriching our environment, helping us build an entrepreneurial value chain engine that yields success as it evolves each semester.

This semester, thanks to the vision and support of the faculty teaching entrepreneurship courses at SHA, the entrepreneurship concentration for SHA students was approved and we began work to reposition and grow our entrepreneurship course offerings to promote enrollment for students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The upcoming Winter Session 2015 marks our entry into online entrepreneurship education with two courses being offered.

A new project titled the Zalaznick Networking Challenge was launched in HADM 3135/HADM 6135: Conversations with Entrepreneurs. The objective of the Zalaznick Networking Challenge is to foster entrepreneurial networking within the Cornell alumni community as a supplement to the coursework currently incorporated into the class. The interviews will be showcased on the newly launched iTunesU podcast series called The Make a Difference (MAD) Impact: Conversations with Entrepreneurs.

Our support for entrepreneurial students goes beyond the classroom through office hours held in The Pillsbury Institute. Thanks to our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EnIRs) and the business consultations with Professor Klausner, we doubled the number of sessions provided since last fall. This increase in support for students seeking entrepreneurial assistance is testament to the strong commitment and the help of our operations team, including Kristen Ciferri, Kathy Terry, and Leslee Kane.

This team is working to finalize the details of our inaugural Hospitality Entrepreneurship Roundtable in February where we will welcome over 25 leaders in entrepreneurship to work with our entrepreneurship faculty to discuss topics such as franchising and self-employment, funding, opportunity recognition, 3-D printing and automation, and start-up legal considerations. I’m also looking forward to working with the Center for Hospitality Research on a Technology Entrepreneurship Roundtable in April. Both of the roundtables will kick-off with a speed networking event that is aimed to engage Cornellians as they build their networks.

In November, Ivey published the case Innovation at the Leading Hotels of the World that I wrote with Saniya Gandhi, Kelly McDarby, and Joanne Jihwan Park. This case highlights the result of the independent study collaboration with The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. (LHW), a consortium of 430 luxury hotels worldwide and The Pillsbury Institute. The case describes how we created a tool that allows LHW to quantify each hotel’s performance, based on its engagement with its services. I am looking forward to using this case class in HADM 4180/6180: Technology for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship this spring.

Our calendar for Spring 2015 activities is fully set. I hope you will become engaged by participating in one or more of the opportunities listed at pihe.cornell.edu. We would love to work with you.

To making a difference as we create opportunity,

Mona Anita K. Olsen, PhD | SHA ‘04 |
Visiting Assistant Professor
Assistant Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship

Become engaged

As we close out our 2013-2014 academic year, it’s time to reflect on the results of our efforts to align our operations to make a difference in the industry around three core facets at the foundation of our operations: engagement, education, and experiential learning. It has been a semester of engagement and this newsletter highlights the spring programming that supported the entrepreneurial academic curriculum of SHA.

Education:
This semester we saw a continued increase in our enrollment numbers in our entrepreneurship courses and the launch of two new courses, Corporate Entrepreneurship and Technology for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship. The Fall 2014 Conversations with Entrepreneurs Course Speakers have been announced; I am looking forward to working with such a fantastically talented group of entrepreneurs as they share their journeys in class. This upcoming summer, Technology for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurship will be offered through the School of Continuing Education and Summer Programs.

Engagement:
Connect Entrepreneurial Hotelies Mentor Network officially launched in January 2014. The Connect Entrepreneurial Hotelies Network is a mentorship platform created to engage entrepreneurs at all states of ideation to drive innovation in the hospitality industry. We are currently looking for mentors and mentees to participate. Become engaged: the next application deadline for participation as a mentor/mentee is June 10, 2014.

Experience:
The Hospitality Business Plan Competition was a success during HEC weekend. Through Slice of Insight Socials, we were able to welcome many of our Advisory Board Members to campus to share their journeys and advice with students. At the Celebration conference in April, we welcomed back alumni to share their insight and wisdom during two panels: Cornell to Career and Entrepreneurial Women in the Hospitality Industry.

We are in the process of finalizing details for our 2014-2015 planning of education, engagement, and experiential learning programming in support of our mission to support the entrepreneurial academic entrepreneurial curriculum of SHA. Become engaged by identifying entrepreneurial alumni that you think would be impactful in our mission here.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Mona Anita K. Olsen, PhD | SHA ‘04 |
Visiting Assistant Professor
Assistant Academic Director of the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship

In a recent conversation John Horowitz ‘13, observed that “the Pillsbury Institute and Entrepreneurship have come out of nowhere these last two years”. It was so gratifying to hear that from a student here at SHA and caused me to reflect a bit on PIHE activity. Our students are studying Entrepreneurship in ever growing numbers, students starting businesses continue to rise, and for the first time we see students accepting employment positions related to corporate entrepreneurship with some of the best known brands in the hospitality industry. That is an important step for Entrepreneurship at SHA; students getting jobs (in part) as a result of studying Entrepreneurship. 

Our Hospitality Business Plan Competition once again showcased five “launchable” businesses and I know that three of the five finalists have had at least one inquiry from potential investors. I again would like to acknowledge all the students who developed business plans for this competition. This is a learning experience that carries real-life lessons and I am especially pleased to see a sizeable portion of the competition prize money support the potential launch of new businesses.

In addition we have seen the first of our SHA Case Study series thanks to collaboration between Sr. Lecturer Susan Fleming and PIHE board member and CEO of PAR Springer-Miller Systems, Inc., Larry Hall. Their case focuses on hospitality entrepreneurship and innovation in a corporate environment.

Entrepreneurship course offerings have also increased to accommodate the growing demand from students at SHA as well as other schools and colleges across campus.

None of this would be possible without the support and efforts of faculty and staff but I want to offer a special word of gratitude to my colleagues Susan Fleming and Adam Klausner as well as the PIHE Program Manager Kristen Ciferri. In addition, the PIHE Entrepreneurs in Residence have had a noticeable impact on the value that the institute provides for our students. Thanks to Nick Bayer (Saxby’s Coffee), Winston Lord (Venga), Liz Ngonzi (Amazing Taste, LLC), and Jacob Wright (High Peaks Hospitality). Lastly, the PIHE Advisory Board supports our efforts in more ways than I can convey in this newsletter and while so much of what they do is behind the scenes, they are instrumental in the achievements of the PIHE. Please take a moment to visit our list of Advisory Board members and corporate sponsors who contribute in so many ways to our success.

This will be my last column as PIHE Academic Director as I will be stepping down effective June 1, 2013 to become a full time Sr. Lecturer. I look forward to continuing to work closely with our alumni, students, and corporate partners. I am confident that PIHE will continue to deliver on its mission of giving students the chance to practice the entrepreneurial skills they have learned and to develop a portfolio of life experiences critical to success as entrepreneurs and innovators – whether starting their own businesses, or taking the corporate route.

With the support of the School of Hotel Administration, and thanks to the efforts of many individuals, I am pleased to report to you that the Pillsbury Institute conducted two major programs in the past few months, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) and Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). As you will see from the accompanying items in this newsletter, these two programs combine key elements of the Institute’s mission. In addition to fulfilling identified societal needs, they provide direct learning experiences for program participants, as well as giving them the opportunity to put that learning into practice. For EESA, I want to express my appreciation to our hosts at Stellenbosch University as well as the Cornell University Office of Summer Sessions. We would not have had such a successful program without the support of these two great partners. EBV required an unprecedented commitment of a number of faculty from the School of Hotel Administration and the Culinary Institute of America all who donated their time very generously. I also want to thank Carol Zhe and Shannae Murray, of the Centers and Institute staff, who gave generously of their own personal time to help make EBV a success. Also contributing to our PIHE this year are Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, Nick Bayer ’00, founder and president of Saxbys Coffee, Elizabeth Ngonzi ’98, founder and CEO of Amazing Taste LLC, and Jacob Wright, co-founder and president of Action Companies. These three entrepreneurs make a contribution that is incalculable in terms of providing our students with direct, first-hand knowledge regarding what it takes to start a business. Another way our students learn the realities of the entrepreneurship in the Hospitality Industry is the annual Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition, which is already underway, (see the accompanying article in this newsletter). The competing student teams will make their presentations to industry judges in April, in conjunction with Hotel Ezra Cornell. Finally, I want to welcome and introduce you to Kristen Ciferri, our new program manager. Kristen will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Institute as well as programming and more!

We are always seeking new ways to assist our students to both learn how to become entrepreneurs and to practice that entrepreneurship. We welcome your suggestions and participation, so please feel free to contact Kristen or me in that regard. Above all, we thank those who have helped us bring Hospitality Entrepreneurship to our students in such a meaningful way.