New General Director at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne

Lausanne -- On 4 June 2010, Ruud J. Reuland, the departing Director of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), passed on the torch to Michel Rochat, the former General Director of Higher Education for the Canton of Vaud. After eight years spent at the helm of EHL, Ruud J. Reuland is leaving the School and hopes to take a few weeks of sabbatical leave to be spent with his family before becoming involved with new projects and challenges. Michel Rochat is looking forward to taking over the reins of the oldest hotel school and reinforcing its position of leadership on an international level.

At EHL General Directors come and go but the profiles are dissimilar. Ruud Reuland, the Dutchman who had previously held the posts of Dean at Hotelschool The Hague, in the Netherlands, and Human Resource Director of a hospital in Haarlem (the Netherlands), will be succeeded by a Swiss, Michel Rochat, the former Director of Higher Education for the Canton of Vaud with the Département de la formation et de la jeunesse. Previously, Michel Rochat was the Director of the Haute Ecole Vaudoise and a member of the Management Committee of the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland.

Under the guidance of Ruud Reuland, EHL will have, in the words of Marco Torriani, President of the Board of Governors, « largely exceeded the objectives set by the Board of Governors on his arrival in 2002». During his mandate Ruud Reuland has succeeded in consolidating the School’s positioning at an international level and in adapting the teaching programmes to meet the needs of the market.

This strategy will be carried on by his successor who will continue its implementation by providing an unequalled framework for study to the School’s students, and supplying high-level graduates to its partners.

Michel Rochat wants to develop solid roots in Switzerland and reaffirm EHL’s links with the German-speaking side of Switzerland, Europe and the rest of the world. As regards teaching, he wishes to encourage training programmes such as a consecutive Master and will pay particular attention to the basis of EHL’s great strength: its Faculty. The objective will be to associate academic life with the professional environment. Specific attention will be paid to the new needs and new markets, such as on-line reservation, or the needs of an older clientele. Concerning the latter, the market is phenomenal and the hospitality needs are immense.