
9 minute read
Featured Alumni
Claudia Alvarado’s career has taken several interesting and unexpected turns. She went from being a premed student during her freshman year in college, to working in human resources and education roles before falling in love with the hospitality field and data analytics. There CLAUDIA ALVARADO were many things that drew her to hospitality. BSBA in Hospitality, 2012 | One of her favorite MS in Business Analytics, 2015 aspects was the surprise factor. Whether operation focused work or research, each day brought new challenges and accomplishments. In addition, there was always something to learn from guests and coworkers.
Alvarado gives a lot of credit to the school for preparing her to be successful. The hands-on approach she received via her classes and internship requirements were crucial in helping her get a better understanding of the industry. While at Fritz Knoebel, she discovered her strengths and weaknesses and was able to explore areas within the field she had never considered before, like housekeeping and human resources.
After graduation, Alvarado worked as Housekeeping Supervisor at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. Her time at Sheraton contributed to her development as a professional, she learned to appreciate the complexity of running a hotel and what value each associate brought to the company. She was particularly blown away by the passion with which the team in the housekeeping department accomplished daily tasks. After several years in the workforce, Alvarado decided to go back to school and supplement her hospitality experience with an MS in Business Analytics from the Daniels College of Business.
Since completing her MS in 2015, Alvarado has worked as a manager in the consulting and analytics department at STR Analytics. In her current role, she engages in research and looks at emerging market trends, oil markets, special events, Airbnb, the Marriott-Starwood merger, OTAs and work conditions in hotels. Her published articles can be found at HotelNewsNow.com. While still a student in Fritz Knoebel, Brianna Borin interned and worked for Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, created by alum Jon Schlegel (HRTM 1997). After graduation, Borin began her career with Snooze as an assistant manager. She has worked through a variety of roles over the last nine years as the group has grown within BRIANNA BORIN Colorado and expanded to Texas, Arizona, and BSBA in Hotel, Restaurant & California. Borin is currently Tourism Management, 2009 the company’s VP of Teaching, Leadership and Coaching. Her professional role is well aligned with her support for local businesses and the growth of downtown Denver.
Borin was recently recognized for her advocacy work with the Downtown Denver Partnership’s Peter Bowes Award, which recognizes outstanding dedication to public service and leadership. Her initial engagement with the Partnership was through its Downtown Denver Leadership Program back in 2012. Borin was awarded the John Parr Leadership Award and was elected Class Trustee. Her experience in the program drove her deeper involvement through which she sought to have a greater impact on Denver and become more involved in her adopted home (Borin is originally from Cheyenne, WY).
This desire to become more involved was realized through the Partnership’s CityBuild program. “CityBuild has a huge impact on young civic leaders and their ability to find a home in civic engagement,” says Borin. “It’s the reason I am as committed to the Partnership as I am because I recognize the tremendous impact the program is making.” In addition to leading the CityBuild initiative, Borin serves on the Partnership’s Denver Civic Ventures Board of Directors and Downtown Denver Leadership Program Alumni Association.
Lest you think these activities have prevented Borin from being involved in Fritz Knoebel, they have not. Since graduating, she has served as a panelist on a variety of career development panels for Fritz Knoebel students, participates annually as a mentor in the Ann & David Hoffman LEAD Mentorship Program, and regularly attends other Fritz Knoebel events.

While at DU, Stephen Hennis’ goal was to own and operate his own restaurant. He was focused on a management training position with a growing restaurant chain like Rock Bottom, Beau Jo’s or Boston Market. However, one day in the career center he saw a notice for a company called HVS that was recruiting hospitality majors with an analytical and/or real estate focus for their office in Boulder. Hennis enjoyed data analysis and had also taken electives in the real estate school, so he signed up to interview. He was hired a week later, and his career trajectory from that point on has been in the hotel real estate sector.
STEPHEN HENNIS BSBA in Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management, 1994 When Hennis started at HVS, the company was still in a start-up environment with a highly incentivized compensation program, which provided an opportunity to grow very quickly. The timing was also unique in that Microsoft Windows was just starting to enter the corporate world, and suddenly recent graduates had a large advantage over many senior executives on the computer learning curve. Analyzing hotel real estate became a critical part of Hennis’ career growth as he developed ways to streamline large projects and eventually re-created all of HVS’ analytical models, the core of which are still being used today.
After six years Hennis left HVS to join the acquisitions and development team at Destination Hotels & Resorts. The timing of his move was unfortunate as the hotel industry entered a downturn in early 2001 and the investment environment was fairly dry for the next three years. However, by 2004 he acquired a $400 million fund earmarked for hotel acquisitions. In the subsequent 3 years, he helped finish the fund and additionally acquired several solid assets for Destination like Miramonte Resort and the Driskill Hotel.
In 2006, Hennis decided to open his own hotel consulting shop named Hospitium—Latin for hospitality. After a few years on his own, his former boss at HVS proposed starting a consulting arm for STR. Stephen has been leading STR’s consulting and analytics division for over six years. A large part of what he did in this role was research within the hotel and travel industry. Hennis prefers to have fun with research and looks into topics that not many have investigated. Some of his recent work includes the NFL’s impact on hotels, analyzing the impact of Hurricane Matthew, compiling information on haunted hotels and devising quizzes on hotel trivia. His work can be found on HotelNewsNow.com. As we went to press, Hennis announced his departure from HVS Analytics. He is heading back into the consulting world, starting his own firm, Hotelogy.

FEATURED ALUMNI CONTINUED...

Leigh Hitz enjoyed a 28-year hospitality career prior to her recent retirement. She spent a significant part of her career with Stout Street Hospitality (formerly Magnolia Hotels); Stout Street is a privately held hotel management and development company, creating boutique hotels in beautiful, historic buildings. For the last 27 years Hitz served as the company’s CEO and President. She thoroughly enjoyed designing the physical assets, but, more important, establishing a company culture of passion, loyalty and "fun" for everyone.
Hitz led the company through its corporate identity change from Magnolia Hotels to Stout Street Hospitality, and grew it from a single property to its current portfolio of seven hotels under management.
LEIGH HITZ BSBA in Hotel & Restaurant Management, 1984 A native of Aspen, Colo., Hitz grew up in tourism and hospitality. She always knew she would end up in the hotel industry. While at an Outward Bound camp in high school she wrote a single goal in her daily journal: "I plan on being a president of a hotel company." She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver, and also completed the General Managers Program at Cornell University’s Hotel School.
Hitz has been actively engaged in the school for the last 10 years during which she served on the Fritz Knoebel Executive Advisory Board; since winter of 2017 she has also served as the school’s first ever Executive-inResidence (EIR). In 2008, Hitz and her husband Jim established a scholarship fund for female students pursuing a hospitality degree at Fritz Knoebel. Hitz has received recognition in the Denver community as well, having been named a finalist for the Denver Business Journal’s “Business Woman of the Year” award.
As the school’s EIR, Hitz mentors students, providing them with guidance as they enter the workforce. She also works with faculty to bring more real world learning opportunities into the classroom in order to make students more prepared for both challenges and opportunities in the industry. This past spring quarter Hitz team-taught a senior level elective, Hospitality Services Management.

PETER YESAWICH, JR. BBSBA in Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism Management, 2005 Peter Yesawich Jr.’s life after DU has been a wild rollercoaster, taking him on a ride in all sorts of directions. After leaving DU in 2005, he headed to Washington D.C. and joined the hospitality tech startup TIG Global, that was soon after purchased by MICROS. At his first job, he was leading marketing strategy and digital media for hotels like The Venetian in Las Vegas, LXR / Blackstone Hotels & Resorts, The Four Seasons and Marriott International. Throughout his career, Yesawich's knowledge base and affinity towards creativity allowed him to work with some of the largest agencies in the world as a creative director, filmmaker and strategist. The agencies he worked for included Venables, Bell & Partners, TBWA Worldwide, Razorfish, Evolution Bureau, Vitro and Modus Operandi. He was also a consultant for BBH, Arnold Worldwide, KBS and more. Being a creative director, filmmaker and consultant has allowed Yesawich to impact the hospitality world in many different ways while solving serious brand and product problems through creativity. Most recently, Yesawich worked on launching a Colorado-based venture capital incubator and accelerator, which will have hospitality brands connected to it. On April 1, 2017 the doors of Emergent opened with the goal of launching 100 companies within the next 10 years and taking an especially focused view on strategic startups in Colorado.
Yesawich comes from a family that has long played in travel, tourism and hospitality. He is on the road all the time for business and with his clients—many of whom are high-end luxury hospitality clients. Although he understands and appreciates the business, he also realizes that the face of the business is changing rapidly. Yesawich believes that hospitality is ripe for fearless, disruptive leaders with a new vision for innovation and that younger audiences are becoming the most important to hospitality brands. He encourages students who are leaving school to really question conventional thinking, specifically as it refers to real innovation that scares larger and even boutique brands.
