22nd Annual Hospitality Symposium Speakers

Michelle is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hospitality Management at the University of San Francisco. Her research areas include consumer behavior, in particular the wants and desires of travelers when selecting accommodations or tourism destinations, and why they make the decisions they do.  Michelle is also interested in how hotels relate to and work within the environment, and how we can make companies more environmentally friendly.   Her research has been published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Education.  She has also presented her research at hospitality conferences throughout the world, and is a contributing writer for the Hotel Business Review. 

Michelle Heston currently serves as the Regional Director of Public Relations for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.  In this role she oversees the marketing communication and public relations efforts for eight luxury holdings in the western US and Hawaii.  In addition to media outreach, advertising and brand communication activities, she is responsible for exploring, cultivating and leveraging cross marketing relationships for the brand. She proudly spearheads Fairmont's “green” marketing efforts.  

As the Founding Partner of Bacchus Management Group, Tim Stannard oversees a collection of thriving restaurants, including the Michelin-starred restaurants Spruce in San Francisco and The Village Pub in Woodside; Café des Amis in San Francisco; Mayfield Bakery & Cafe in Palo Alto, and four Pizza Antica locations (Lafayette, Mill Valley, San Jose, Santa Monica). In 2008, he launched Roast Coffee Company, an artisanal coffee roasting company offering single origin and estate coffee beans from around the globe. . 

A long-time proponent of the local food movement, Stannard’s restaurants take their food philosophy one step further through a partnership with SMIP Ranch, located in the hills above Woodside. Approximately 80 percent of Bacchus’ restaurant produce comes directly from five acres of the ranch’s land, all of which is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.  

Well before social media was coined, Dan Rosenbaum was in charge of many social media pages for brands in the music, TV and Movie industries. Since moving to San Francisco over a year ago, Dan has been working for San Francisco Travel as the Manager of  Visitor Experience Marketing. In this role he is in charge of the San Francisco Facebook page and the OnlyInSF Twitter page, which hopefully many of you are following. On the weekends, you can find Dan exploring all of San Francisco on his road bike or checking out many of the great restaurants, bars and public spaces that make up the city.

Sun-Young Park is an Assistant Professor at the School of Management of University of San Francisco. She conducts research and teaches courses on sustainable business models and strategic service management and marketing.

She taught at University of Hawaii at Manoa and Texas A&M University. While pursuing her Ph.D., she produced reports that evaluated the Texas State agencies' marketing programs including tourism marketing. She was a management consultant at a multinational firm, working with various firms and national government agencies in Asia Pacific and the U.S. on strategy, knowledge management, and national/regional tourism destination marketing.

Mr. Abrams served as the President and CEO of the California Hotel & Lodging Association from January 1, 1991, through December 31, 2008.  Prior to that, he was engaged in the private practice of law in San Francisco for 20 years, and he was legal counsel to the Association for much of that time.

He has also represented numerous owners and operators of hotels, inns, and other lodging establishments of all types on a wide variety of legal, governmental, and operational issues.  He is the author of the book Laws Pertaining to the California Innkeeper (3^rd rev. ed., 2002), which is published by the California Hotel & Lodging Association.

Richard D. Waters (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches marketing and public relations, fundraising, and nonprofit organization management. His research interests include relationship management between organizations and stakeholders and the use of Web 2.0 technologies by nonprofit organizations. He is a former fundraising practitioner and current consultant to Fortune 500 and Philanthropy 400 organizations throughout the United States. In addition to serving on the editorial board of four strategic communication research journals, he is the Associate Editor of Case Studies in Strategic Communication.  He has published more than 45 research articles and book chapters on nonprofit management and public relations topics.

The Principal and founder of HR Futures®, Dr. Stephen McElfresh, was previously the President and CEO of Saratoga Institute. Through HR Futures, Dr. McElfresh provides executive coaching, strategy planning, HR programs and keynote presentations to executive, industry and professional groups. He is certified by SHRM as a Senior Human Resource Professional (SPHR), was a charter member of the SHRM national panel for Human Capital Measurement and HR Metrics, and is a member of the Investor Metrics Workgroup of SHRM.

Dr. McElfresh has taught at the Boston College School of Management and the University of Massachusetts and has served on the Boards of Directors or Advisory Boards of Palo Alto University, Forensic Expert Witness Association, and the Bay Area Organizational Development Network. Dr. McElfresh earned a Ph.D. in organizational psychology from Boston College and a JD from the Santa Clara University School of Law.