Prof. Leora Lanz Boston University School of Hospitality, USA

Leora Halpern Lanz, ISHC is Assistant Dean at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration. She joined the program in January 2015 and teaches the School’s Digital and Experiential Marketing courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.... read more

Prior to joining the School of Hospitality Administration, Leora served as principal of LHL Communications, assisting hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and destinations with branding and marketing strategies and solutions, including media relations, digital and social media advisory, and online reputation management, including: development of internal and external position statements; content creation and story-telling for audience engagement and connections; media training, and “branding” and “solutions” sales training. Her clients included hospitality management and ownership companies, consulting firms and advisory services, regional investment conferences around the globe, and a lodging brand owners association.

For 15 years, Leora served as Global Director of Marketing & Communications for HVS, a leading international hospitality consulting and services firm. She was responsible for overseeing the internal and external marketing communications for the organization’s multitude of offices, services, conferences, and articles and research. She directed the firm’s global business teams for marketing and communications, graphic standards, internal communications, social media, conference branding and the Market Connections annual event. She also managed and edited the firm’s weekly newsletter, the Global Hospitality Report and was the company’s primary media contact.
Simultaneously, Leora directed HVS’s Sales & Marketing division, working directly with a myriad of hotel owners, properties and companies, hospitality-related services, and other entertainment and recreational venues. Leora and her team of experienced marketing communications specialists provided strategic planning, innovative sales training and action planning, social media marketing and publicity, and big-picture branding consultancy.

Prior to joining HVS, she worked for nearly ten years as Director of Public Relations & Advertising for the ITT Sheraton Hotels of New York and for five years as Director of Public Relations for the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau (now Meet Boston). With ITT Sheraton, she ran the public relations and advertising operations for six hotels and played a significant public relations role for numerous hotel renovations, re-namings and openings. While in Boston, she spearheaded the citywide promotion of the Monet exhibition and was invited by the Japan National Tourist Organization to teach destination marketing to tourism officials there.

A member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) and the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), Leora serves on the Americas Advisory Board for HSMAI. She was named one of the Top 100 Powerful Leaders of Hospitality in the US in 2022 by the International Hospitality Institute (IHI)). The IHI also named her one of the Top 25 Influential Hospitality Educators for 2021 and appointed her as one of its five Educational Advisory Board Members. In February 2017, HSMAI’s national leadership awarded Leora as one of the Top 25 Extraordinary Minds of Hospitality Sales & Marketing in North America. She was also honored as Professor of the Year for 2016-2017 by the students at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration.