‘Choosing a Career in the Hospitality Industry | A European Perspective’ - Interview w/ Ruud Reuland, General Director of the Lausanne Hotel School, Switzerland

Prior to joining EHL, Ruud Reuland was the Dean of the Hotelschool The Hague in the Netherlands. He was responsible for the business and curriculum development of the school as well as the management of 80 lecturers and represented the school at international industry events. He also occupies various positions in industry bodies, such as the Dutch Association of Hotel Schools. Ruud Reuland started his professional career as the Director of Human Resources at a hospital in Haarlem, Netherlands, before joining the Hotelschool The Hague in 1978 as a part-time lecturer. He worked his way up, holding several positions such as Director of Research and then Director of Consultancy and Training before becoming Dean at the school in 1997. Mr Reuland holds a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Management from Hotelschool The Hague as well as a Master's degree in Business Law from Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Before going to university, he worked in various hotels in the Netherlands and Ireland. Ruud Reuland is a Dutch native and speaks fluent Dutch, English and German. Based at EHL's premises in Chalet-à-Gobet (Lausanne), he will start in his new position in April next year and report to the School's Board of Governors.

The Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) is a leading international hospitality management school. The School is committed to providing the hospitality industry with talented graduates, who will be the future leaders of the industry. Its mission is to develop the proficiency of each student by educating them in a world class learning environment and through providing an innovative and demanding curriculum. EHL is the only hospitality school in Switzerland with HES (Haute Ecole Spécialisée / 'University of Applied Sciences') accreditation from the Swiss authorities. It offers an International Hospitality Management degree in French and English, both accredited as an HES degree in Switzerland and as a Bachelor of Science Degree (B.Sc.) by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in the USA. EHL also offers a Master in Hospitality Administration (MHA) programme. Other activities include the consultancy services of the Lausanne Hospitality Consulting division and the research practice of the Lausanne Institute for Hospitality Research. EHL is a private, non-profit foundation and as such reinvests all profits solely into its activities and development.

About hotelschools.com - Filling an obvious information-gap on the Internet, hotelschools.com aims to become an exhaustive information resource which promotes education and career- development within the global hospitality & tourism industry. Supported by leading industry associations and powered by Hsyndicate, hotelschools.com serves the needs of various stakeholders within the educational landscape of hospitality education: (1) Prospective students (access to unbiased information), (2) Current students (access to industry-knowledge), (3) Employees (access to continued education), (4) Employers (access to talent), (5) Associations (member-access to continued education), and of course (6) Schools and Universities (which serve all above stakeholders). For further information visit www.hotelschools.com.

Kevin Heilbronner is the US Editor for wiredhotelier.com and hospitalitynet.org, providing streaming multimedia-content for these websites. Based outside of Washington DC, Heilbronner has worked with Hsyndicate to conduct interviews at several hospitality trade shows in the US and Europe over the last couple of years. His column and content are featured in the Hospitality Net weekly newsletter. A familiar voice in Washington, DC, Heilbronner is the stadium announcer for the NBA's Washington Wizards, WNBA's Washington Mystics and WUSA's Washington Freedom. He resides in Centreville, VA and can be reached via email: Kevin@hsyndicate.com.