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HOSPITALITY I N N O V A T O R
 Hospitality Innovator: Lara Hernandez Hernandez had already changed majors several times when she stumbled upon the hotel and restaurant management major at West Virginia University after remembering fondly previous part-time jobs she’d held at restaurants. After signing up for the major, Hernandez decided she’d best get familiar with hotels, so she marched down to the Holiday Inn property in Morgantown, West Virginia, and was hired in as a front-desk clerk. The 38-year-old has been a “hotel girl” ever since, and in April she was named VP of distribution and relationship marketing at InterContinental Hotels Group. “There are two types of people in this business,” Hernandez said during a telephone interview last month. “You either love it and have a passion for it, or it’s not for you. And I’m lucky to have a passion for it.” IHG career Hernandez has been with IHG since 2006, heading up business development within the company’s distribution marketing division. She moved to worldwide sales in 2009 before being named to her most recent post within IHG, where she is responsible for driving regional strategy for all things that touch the company’s direct channels. “The great thing about working for a company like IHG, which has such a large, global footprint, is you can have many careers,” she said. “And I’ve certainly proven that.” Her career at IHG has brought her eye-to-eye with OTAs. “My take on the OTAs is that they are useful,” she said. It is also important that the OTAs that IHG partners with are the right fit and add the right business mix to the company’s properties. In the end, that philosophy meet’s Hernandez’ ultimate goal: driving as much business to IHG hotel operators as possible. “I have a great affinity for the hotels in our system,” she said. “They work very hard. The individuals who work there—the hoteliers, the GMs, the owners—they too have a passion for delivering great customer service.” A passionate leader Passion is not something Hernandez believes she is short on. She couples that passion with loyalty, another characteristic she makes sure to bring to work. “I have a tremendous amount of energy,” she said. “I’m passionate about life. Everything I do, whether I’m at work, at home … I feel you have to have to be two feet into it and do it the best you can … because this is it, right?” When she is not in the office, Hernandez is spending time with her husband of eight years as well as her 3-year-old son and 18-month old daughter. She jokes that having two young children doesn’t leave her much time for many hobbies. As for her work life, leadership is also something she takes seriously. “It’s important that the people I work with, that I help them grow in their careers,” she said. As for growing in her own career, she has her own set of goals she’d like to accomplish. Her current role is regional in scope and Hernandez said she would not mind broadening out internationally and living outside the United States in some role with IHG. “Going global,” she said, is the next logical step in her career. Source: www.hotelnewsnow.com Trinity |
