Professor Beals is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, where he also received his PhD. A former Director of IMHI, he has taught at Cornell, Boston and Denver Universities, and the Glion Hotel School, Switzerland. Paul Beals' teaching and research fields are hotel development, financing and asset management. He is the author or editor of three books and numerous articles on the subject, and has participated worldwide in seminars and consultancies with international clients.

Since 1998 Eric Bidault has been Director and Manager of Think and Do International, a consultancy specializing in devising strategies for maximizing company turnover and profits. The company works in the fields of tourism, casino operations, fashion, leisure and new technology. Previously Eric Bidault was marketing director with Groupe Lucien Barrière for five years, with the main responsibility for revitalizing the casino sector (13 establishments).

Professor Choi received her PhD at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. She teaches at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, and is a guest lecturer in yield management at IMHI. Her teaching and research fields are hotel revenue management, demand-forecasting methods and information systems management. Before entering academic life, Sunmee Choi gained hotel industry experience in marketing and management at Hyatt and Sheraton hotels in the USA.

Iñigo Echeveste holds university degrees from the University of Navarra, Spain, and Purdue University, USA, and was a professor of services marketing at IAE, Universidad Austral, Argentina. His research and teaching interests focus on the internationalization of hospitality and tourism firms in particular and services firms in general. He has co-authored a textbook on international marketing in Latin America, and has considerable consultancy and research experience of that continent and of Europe.

Stefan Gröschl holds a PhD in cross-cultural management from Oxford Brookes University, England, following an MSc from the same University in International Hotel and Tourism Management. His research and publications focus on human resources management and cross-cultural issues, particularly the integration of disadvantaged and/or minority employee groups into the workforce. He has worked widely in the hotel industry and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration.

Bob Kastner has undergraduate and MBA degrees from Cornell University, where he has also taught at the School of Hotel Administration. His areas of teaching and consultancy include accountancy, hotel financial management and management training and simulations. He has vast experience of the hotel industry and been a consultant on management training to every major American and European hotel chain.

Professor O'Connor studied for his BSc and Ma degrees in Dublin and received his PhD in hospitality e-commerce from QMU Edinburgh. Applying information technology to the hotel and tourist industries is the focus of his teaching and research at IMHI. He is the author of two leading textbooks and numerous articles on the subject, and is also recognized worldwide as a consultant, seminar speaker and editorial advisor to leading journals in his special field.

Michael Olsen is Professor of strategic management in the hospitality industry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is the author or editor of eight books and over 170 articles on the subject in both trade and academic journals. He was founding head of the department of hotel, restaurant and institute management at Virginia Tech and founding president of the International Academy of Hospitality Research; he has served on many hotel, restaurant and food services committees, mainly in the USA, and is currently Director of Research of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Bob Perry is a BA and MA graduate of Providence College, Rhode Island (affiliated to Rutgers and the State University of New York). He has lectured widely on Human Resources management and runs his own consultancy out of Vermont, USA. He has worked extensively in the hospitality industry, and directed Management Training in companies such as Trans World Airlines and Hilton International. In the latter capacity he directed the administration and program development of the Career Development Institute.

Michel Phan obtained his PhD in international marketing at the University of NSW, Sydney, Australia, following an MBA from Monash University, Melbourne. His teaching and research interests centre on cross-cultural marketing in business-to-business relationships, and he has taught marketing in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the USA. He has presented his research widely at academic conferences and published in the Journal of Business Research.

Josef Ransley is a British national, born in Belgium. His work as a specialist in architectural planning and interior design for the hotel and leisure industry is internationally recognized. During his course at IMHI, he takes students through the key issues that need to be considered when developing new or existing hospitality properties (planning and design, investment and costs, selection and management of the development team, etc.)

John Swarbooke is Principal Lecturer in Tourism Management at Sheffield Hallam University, England. His research interests focus on sustainable tourism and diversification of tourist themes and destinations, and he has published very widely on these and related subjects. He has been a consultant on every aspect of the tourist industry to governments and commercial organizations throughout the world and is president of ATLAS, the EU recognised body for universities which teach tourism and leisure.