News for the Hospitality Executive |
To Recognize the Importance of Professional Certification
in the Hospitality Industry
the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute
Hosting Breakfast to Honor
Distinguished Certified Hotel Administrators and Master
Hotel Suppliers
.
August 29, 2008 - The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (EI) will revive a long-standing tradition when it hosts the Celebration of Excellence breakfast for Certified Hotel Administrators and Master Hotel Suppliers on Monday, November 10, 2008, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center during the American Hotel & Lodging Association Fall Conference in New York. The Celebration of Excellence is open to hospitality executives, academics, and suppliers who hold the professional designations of Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) and Master Hotel Supplier (MHS). During the breakfast, select individuals will be honored as CHA and MHS Emeritus. �This celebration recognizes the importance of professional certification in the hospitality industry and gives us an opportunity to honor those people who have distinguished themselves in their hospitality careers and shown a dedication to the goals of professional certification,� said Barbara Blankenship, EI�s senior director of professional certification. EI began honoring those who had earned the Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) designation in 1981, when the first CHA banquet was held in Hawaii. At the banquet, all those who had earned the CHA in the previous year were called to the stage and presented with their certificates. �In those early years, it was a simple affair,� remembered Dr. Ronald
F. Cichy, CHA, who earned his CHA in 1983. �As we had more and more people
earn the certification, it became a very big event.�
�The CHA Emeritus was created to recognize people who had completed a number of recertifications and were retiring from the industry,� Cichy recalled. �It was like a lifetime achievement award. These people had been with certification since its beginning.� Indeed, the list of those who have received the CHA Emeritus Award is a Who�s Who of hospitality leaders. It includes: Robert M. James, Howard P. �Bud� James, Creighton Holden, Paul R. Handlery, Douglas Keister, Donald E. Jankura, M.O. �Bus� Ryan, Phillip B. Lowry, Philip Pistilli, Jack Vaughn, John Curry, and Robert Baersch. Tony Farris, CEO of Quorum Hotels & Resorts, was the most recent recipient of the CHA Emeritus, received during the AH&LA Summer Summit in April 2008. The November �Celebration of Excellence� breakfast will name new CHA
Emeritus and for the first time, MHS Emeritus, recipients.
Tickets to the breakfast are $75 and are available on a first-come, first served basis. The reservation deadline is October 17, 2008. For more information, call 407-999-8100 or visit www.ei-ahla.org/COE. Established in 1953 as a nonprofit educational foundation of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Educational Institute�s mission is to support AH&LA by becoming the preferred provider to the lodging industry, hospitality schools, and related hospitality industries both domestically and internationally by developing and providing quality resources to train, educate, and certify hospitality professionals. |
Contact:
Elizabeth Johnson
|