HSMAI Announces 2022 Revenue Optimization Honorees

McLean, VA—The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) will celebrate four outstanding revenue optimization leaders during HSMAI ROC Americas in Orlando on June 29, part of HSMAI Commercial Strategy Week 2022. HSMAI will honor Eric Orkin with the prestigious Vanguard Award for Achievement in Revenue Optimization. Andres Reyes, Director of Revenue Management at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, and Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA, Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection Hotels, will be presented with the Revenue Professional of the Year Awards for single/multi-unit and corporate, respectively. Dr. Chris K. Anderson, Professor and Director of the Executive Master of Management in Hospitality at Cornell University, will be honored with the Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year Award. The “Of the Year” awards are co-presented by HSMAI and Expedia Group.

Eric Orkin

Eric Orkin is a pioneer in the field of revenue management. In 1988, Cornell Hospitality Quarterly published an article he authored — “Boosting Your Bottom Line with Yield Management” — which we can point to as the genesis of the revenue management discipline in the hospitality industry.

Among many career highlights and industry contributions, Orkin founded Delphi in 1979 as a sales and catering system with the goal of collecting the critical data on group sales and bookings needed to drive good revenue management. Today, Delphi is a mainstay in the hospitality industry and efficiently brings the disciplines of sales, operations, and revenue management together. And in 1985, returning to his revenue management interests, Orkin went on to start OPUS 2.

Orkin’s intelligence and his understanding of how this technology could and should be applied to hotels are unmatched in the industry. He is so passionate about revenue management that his enthusiasm and intensity about its use were instrumental in making revenue management a standard in the hotel industry today. He has served as the catalyst for change throughout his career and was THE trailblazer that all others have followed.

Andres Reyes

Andres Reyes, Director of Revenue Management at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, is this year’s single/multi-unit Revenue Optimization Professional of the Year. Reyes has been in the hospitality and gaming space for 10 years involved with rebrands, revivals, grand openings, and everything in between.

Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in the gaming capital of the world, Las Vegas, he majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).

Upon graduation, Reyes got started at MGM Resorts International and was given complete freedom to learn the complexities of the business. Exposure to data warehousing and business intelligence systems allowed him to learn as much as possible about all aspects of the operation from the ground up.

Taking this experience, he found great success and was able to apply this combined business and analytical skillset to countless transformational projects and initiatives upon moving to Station Casinos and now to Foxwoods.

Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA

Christian Boerger, CRME, CHDM, CHBA, Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection Hotels, is this year’s corporate Revenue Optimization Professional of the Year. Hospitality has been Boerger’s passion for more than twenty years. During his versatile career, he held a range of operational and strategic leadership roles with IHG, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Design Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and Pacific Hospitality Group.

In his current position as Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Oxford Collection of Hotels, he continues to challenge the status quo while devising commercial strategies geared to increase revenues and optimize profit. As past chairman of HSMAI Europe’s Revenue Management Advisory Board and current vice-chair of HSMAI Americas’ Revenue Optimization Advisory Board, Boerger continues to advance the revenue optimization discipline through empowerment, thought leadership, and education.

Dr. Chris K. Anderson

This year, HSMAI is awarding the Revenue Optimization Educator of the Year Award to Dr. Chris Anderson, Professor and Director of the Executive Master of Management in Hospitality at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Prior to his appointment in 2006, he was on faculty at the Ivey School of Business in London, Ontario, Canada. Anderson’s main research focus is on revenue management and service pricing. He actively works with industry, across numerous industry types, in the application and development of revenue management, having worked with a variety of hotels, airlines, rental car and tour companies, as well as numerous consumer packaged goods and financial services firms. Anderson’s research has been funded by numerous governmental agencies and industrial partners. At the School of Hotel Administration, he teaches courses in revenue management and service operations management.

AWARD INFORMATION

These awards will be presented at HSMAI ROC Americas, the world’s largest gathering of revenue optimization professionals in the travel industry. This year, ROC will be held in conjunction with HSMAI’s Marketing Strategy Conference as a part of HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Week. For more information, visit https://commercial.hsmai.org/.

HSMAI chapters and the industry at large can nominate individuals for the Vanguard Award for Achievement in Revenue Optimization and the Revenue Optimization Professional and Educator of the Year Awards. Nominees represent top talent in the discipline and are judged by a panel of revenue leaders on a variety of criteria.

To interview an HSMAI spokesperson about the event and the award honorees, please contact Miranda Brown at Miranda.brown@hsmai.org.

About HSMAI

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry’s leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as the Marketing Strategy Conference, Adrian Awards, Sales Leader Forum, and HSMAI ROC. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is a membership organization comprising more than 5,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at hsmai.org, HSMAI Facebook, HSMAI Twitter, and HSMAI YouTube.