Jan Freitag Senior Vice President International Operations at Smith Travel Research Mr. Jan Freitag is the Senior Vice President, Global Development at Smith Travel Research (STR), the recognized leader in lodging industry benchmarking services. In his capacity Mr. Freitag is a frequent public speaker and has delivered key note presentations at domestic and international conferences (such as: American Lodging Investment Summit, Hunter Investment Conference, Southern Lodging Summit, Global Spa Summit, Russia Investment Conference, European Hotel Conference). In addition he is a trusted source for industry insights, quoted in trade publications and the general news media such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Bloomberg, etc. He also writes a monthly column for Lodging Magazine, the official magazine of the AH&LA. At STR he oversees a variety of projects, all charged with the accumulation and interpretation of global lodging data. Prior to joining STR, Mr. Freitag was the Director of Content Integrity at hotelreports.com in upstate New York and a hospitality consultant with Ernst & Young in Phoenix. Mr. Freitag holds a Bachelor Degree, with distinction, from the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, where he lectures frequently and received his Executive MBA, with honors, from Vanderbilt University. He is a member on the advisory boards for the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management at Denver University; STASH Rewards, the independent hotel loyalty program; and SuiteLinq, a next generation in-room technology company. Mr. Freitag resides in Nashville, TN. Kathleen Cullen Corporate Director of Revenue Strategies Heritage Hotels & Resorts Kathleen Cullen brings over 20 years of experience throughout the multi-faceted hospitality industry. Her experience ranges from working on property to varying positions in the corporate office of a dynamic, faced-paced, global hotel company to offering consulting services to the hotel industry. Starting in 1991, Cullen held management positions in front desk, reservations, and revenue management. Her operations positions provided her with a practical application orientation enabling her to relate directly to the day-to-day challenges in the hospitality industry.
In 1995, she moved to the corporate office of the Swissôtel Management Company, a Swiss company headquartered in New York City with offices in Zurich and operating as Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts. Swissôtel was a member of the SairGroup, managing 23 hotels across the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia. During her tenure at Swissôtel, Cullen started as manager of central reservations and was promoted through several positions in operations to senior director of distribution. In June 2001, Raffles International purchased Swissôtel. Cullen continued in her position and was promoted to vice president of revenue & distribution for Raffles International in 2002. Raffles International is a Singapore-based hotel company which owns and manages 33 hotels and resorts across the globe. In her role with Raffles International, Cullen was responsible for e-commerce strategy development and implementation including proprietary brand Websites, electronic communication vehicles and integration with the customer relationship database, as well as relationship management with distribution partners. Following brand strategies, she developed and implemented operational and marketing strategies for the electronic distribution channels; formed and supported a revenue management philosophy for the brands and was responsible for the reservations sales & service operations globally, as well as set philosophies concerning operational standards and customer care for regional and local operations. During her time with Swissôtel and Raffles, Cullen led the creation and implementation of a global revenue management infrastructure that included organizational structure, strategy, supporting processes and operations, as well as the selection of a revenue management system and partner and ongoing internal education for all levels of management. In addition, she established an organization that educated, trained and enhanced the management of electronic distribution systems and operations at a global, regional and local level. She successfully led three significant RFP search and implementation conversion efforts two for the Central Reservation System and CRO Services, and another for Revenue Management software. She led the project to centralize North American reservations, opening a new centralized call center in Chicago, and later, restructured the Regional Reservations Office optimizing the organizational structure and operations of the department; thus, improving efficiency, customer service and revenue. In addition to her responsibilities with Swissôtel and Raffles, she was also heavily involved with HEDNA - a not-for-profit trade association whose worldwide membership includes over 200 of the most influential companies in the hotel distribution industry. Cullen s involvement with HEDNA began in 1995, at which time she was elected to education committee captain. In 2000, she was elected to the Board of Directors and one year later was elected as HEDNA s vice president. In 2006, she started her own consulting business offering services to hotel companies, independent hotels, as well as technology companies. Cullen services focused in the areas of revenue management, reservations, distribution, technology conversions and training.
In September of 2010, Cullen joined Heritage Hotels & Resorts as Corporate Director of Revenue Strategies. In her role with Heritage she is charged with enhancing the company s revenue management strategies and guiding the company into the future to become a leader in revenue management. In addition, Cullen also sits on HSMAI s Revenue Management Special Interest Group s Advisory Board. Over the years, Cullen has also been a frequent speaker on panels and at seminars concerning central reservations, electronic distribution and revenue management in the travel industry. Additionally, she also was an active member on both the OPERA Revenue Management Systems (formerly known as OPUS 2 Revenue Technologies, Inc.) and Galileo Advisory Councils. Cullen s written work has been published in the HEDNA 2005/2006 White Paper Series, as well as through HSMAI. Her revenue management publications include Defining Revenue Management: Top Line to Bottom Line, which was published in June 2006 and is currently the required curriculum at Cornell University s revenue management program. The most recent publication was published in June 2010 and is titled The Evolving Dynamics of Revenue Management: A Comprehensive Revenue Optimization Road Map for Hotel Owners, Operators and Practitioners and is now the required textbook for NYU s revenue management program. Cullen attended Fitchburg University and also received certificates in Hotel Yield Management from Horand Vogel and Associates and E-Business Strategy from the University of Chicago. The mother of three, Cullen resides with her family in New Mexico. Heather Scharmer Manager, Revenue Management Education Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts Heather Scharmer, Manager, Revenue Management Education for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is responsible for developing the Revenue Management educational curriculum specific to luxury hotels and resorts. She brings over 20 years of extensive experience developing and implementing various Revenue Management training programs around the globe. Scharmer began her career in 1990, working her way through operations exploring the various areas of operations and management within limited service, full-service and upscale branded hotels. In 1998, Scharmer joined the Global Revenue Management team at Bass Hotels and Resorts, now InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), where she was charged with developing and deploying Revenue Management Systems training and documentation.
In this role, Scharmer developed and created training to support the proprietary RMS and directed the deployment of both the system and the training around the globe. As the world changed after 9/11, Scharmer s role focused on introducing Revenue Management and the supporting system to hotels outside of the Americas. During this time she was instrumental in the development of the curriculum to support the implementation of enhancements to the RMS. In 2006, Scharmer expanded the focus of her role to include Revenue Management for hotels without RMS capabilities. In support of this initiative, she collaborated with Cornell University; School of Hotel Administration to develop the Masters level of IHG s Revenue Academy. This course brought Revenue Management to the next level for select experienced Revenue Managers from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Having actively participated in the adoption of Revenue Management systems and best practices in more than 3,000 hotels, Scharmer made the move to IHG s Revenue Management for Hire team in 2010. In this strategic role she managed a team of remote Revenue Managers based in the US and Canada, responsible for approximately 90 IHG branded hotels. In March 2011, Scharmer joined Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to direct the educational effort supporting Revenue Management. It is in this role she expands her knowledge base to include luxury brands and the unique challenges presented. She is leading the effort to establish and maintain the education curriculum in support of the strategic vision of the Global Revenue Management team. Scharmer is an HSMAI member and has been a panelist and speaker for conferences and workshops, with a focus on Revenue Management in the hospitality industry. Scharmer, a Michigan native, resides in Atlanta, GA with her husband and two sons. Jeff Higley Editorial Director HotelNewsNow Jeff Higley, Vice President, digital media & communications, Hotel News Now/Smith Travel Research, is a 25-year journalism veteran who has specialized in the hotel industry for the past dozen years. He launched HotelNewsNow.com, a division of Smith Travel Research in September 2008. Prior to joining HotelNewsNow.com and Smith Travel Research in March 2008, Higley served in various leadership positions for Questex Media Group s Hotel & Motel Management. Higley was instrumental in the company s launch of Hotel Design, Luxury Hotelier and The Hotel Times magazines.
Higley began his career in the newspaper industry and worked as a sportswriter for several medium-sized Midwest newspapers, covering everything from high school basketball to the World Series. Higley and his wife, Cheryl, have three children: Sarah, Emily and Isabella. They reside in Avon Lake, Ohio.