HORSHAM, Pennsylvania; May 21, 2007 � LRA
Worldwide, Inc., a leading consulting firm in the rapidly-growing field
of Customer
Experience Management (CEM), has announced a number of promotions within
its international consultant corps, elevating seven individuals to the
role of Senior Consultant or Account Manager. These seasoned hospitality
industry professionals will serve as de facto field offices in the regions
that they cover, providing account support for LRA client projects and
field consultants throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas
and Asia. They will also be charged with developing new business
opportunities in those regions.
�We�ve reached a point where a great deal of
our hospitality business is international,� explained John Roberto, an
LRA Senior Vice President and the Managing Director of the firm�s Quality
Assurance & Mystery Shopping practice. �Our international field
offices will supplement the infrastructure already in place for these accounts,
and the various areas of expertise among the Account Managers and Senior
Consultants that we�ve promoted will provide valuable resources to our
team members operating internationally.�
The core of LRA�s business is in performance
measurement services � the design, development and implementation of custom
Quality Assurance/Brand Assurance Audit Programs and Customer
Satisfaction and Loyalty Research Programs. LRA currently works
with eight of the top 10 hotel groups worldwide in one or both of these
capacities; LRA conducts more than 13,000 hotel audits in a given calendar
year and has 350,000-plus customer survey responses in its benchmark database.
The LRA regional field offices will be covered
as follows:
Canada
Kerry Welch, Senior Consultant: Prior to
joining LRA, Kerry amassed ten years of experience in various management,
rooms, guest service, reservations and sales positions in the hospitality
industry, most recently as a General Manager for Hilton. She has
split time between the U.K. and Canada, working primarily for high-end
independent hotel and conference center properties. Kerry has a degree
from the Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, earned certifications in
Customer Care/Customer Service in both England and Canada, and speaks conversational
French and German.
Email: [email protected]
Mexico
Anna Astwood, Senior Consultant: Anna joined
LRA after spending six years in Front Desk and Guest Service management
positions at the W Hotel in New York; she also helped lead the opening
team for the W Hotel Mexico City. Since joining LRA, Anna has worked
out of Mexico for the past three years on the Grupo Posadas and Starwood
Latin America accounts. Anna has her degree in International Business
Management from Pace University in New York; she speaks English and Spanish
fluently and is conversant in French and Italian.
Email: [email protected]
Central and South America
Jorge Orozco, Senior Consultant: Jorge boasts
upwards of ten years experience in the hospitality industry, serving in
a variety of front-line and managerial roles. As Reservations and
Revenue Manager at the Holiday Inn Downtown Miami, Jorge led a high-performing
unit that ultimately improved customer service performance by 80-percent
and increased internet business by 90-percent. Fluent in both Spanish and
English, Jorge studied at Universidad Libre in Bogota, Colombia prior to
coming to the United States.
Email: [email protected]
Europe
Sonja Engljaehringer, Account Manager: Sonja�s
background includes more than 13 years of international hospitality experience
with four- and five-star hotels and resorts in Austria, France, the United
Kingdom and the United States. She has worked for Starwood Hotels &
Resorts, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and Relais & Châteaux
Hotels & Resorts in various leadership positions in sales and marketing,
rooms and revenue management. Sonja is a graduate of the Hotel and Tourism
Academy in Austria and speaks German, English, French and Italian.
Email: [email protected]
Africa, Middle East
Douglas Cooper, Senior Consultant: Douglas�10-plus
years of experience in the international hospitality industry include front
office and guest service positions with a range of property types, including
high-end African Safari Lodges, full-service city center hotels (Sheraton
Belgravia), Relais & Châteaux Hotels & Resorts and high-end
contemporary properties (St. Martin�s Lane in London - Morgans Hotels
Group). He served as the manager for the Rookery, a highly-regarded boutique
property in London. In addition to English, Douglas speaks the national
languages of Zimbabwe, Shona and Ndebele.
Email: [email protected]
India
Ishneet Kohli, Account Manager: Ishneet has been
a member of the LRA team for nearly four years, serving in both an account
management and field consultant role. Prior to joining LRA she worked for
Loews Hotels and Hilton Hotels in front desk management; she began her
hospitality career with the five-star Taj Group of Hotels, working as a
management trainee in India and Dubai. Ishneet graduated from the Indian
Institute of Hotel Management and from Widener University with a B.S. in
Hospitality Management and speaks Hindi and Punjabi in addition to English.
Email: [email protected]
Asia-Pacific
Gary Tan, Senior Consultant: Gary�s expertise
spans the hospitality spectrum, with experience in the food & beverage,
sales, rooms, event management and guest services divisions in both the
cruise and hotel sectors. Gary has worked for Star Cruises Singapore, the
world�s third largest cruise operator, as well as the Oriental Hotel Singapore
and the Holiday Inn Park View. He has his undergraduate and Masters degree
diplomas in Hotel Management and Tourism from the Swiss Hotel Management
School and speaks fluent English and Mandarin.
Email: [email protected]
The majority of account support and business development
activities will still originate from LRA�s corporate office (ph: +1.215.957.1999,
email: [email protected]),
located outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States.
About LRA Worldwide, Inc:
 LRA
Worldwide, Inc. is a leading consulting, organizational development and
research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM).
LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer
experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services
that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee
performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes
in �operationalizing the brand� � turning brand promise and customer strategy
into operational reality. LRA�s CEM practice areas include Customer
Experience Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management,
Organizational Development & Training, Research and Quality Assurance
& Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic
manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed
individually to address a specific tactical client need.
LRA�s clients include some of the world�s leading
companies and brands, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Intercontinental
Hotels Group, Summit Hotels & Resorts, IBM, the PGA TOUR, the NBA and
Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos. For more information, visit the company�s
Web site at www.LRAworldwide.com.
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