Sarah Perkins Latimer ‘05 - Managing Director
Sarah has spent the last ten years focused on building relationships with high-net-worth individuals to enhance the endowment at a private school in San Diego. Prior to that, she worked at Cornell’s Hotel School in the Alumni Affairs and Development Office where she spent five years cultivating relationships with alumni in the hospitality world.
Sarah is excited to return to the fast-paced world of hospitality and looks forward to getting to know you and increasing your success in the future. She loves building relationships for herself and others and connecting people - whether its to benefit their career, make a new friend, or find a specialist!
Sarah serves as the San Diego Club President of the Cornell Hotel Society and spends her free time raising two boys, hiking, traveling, and spending quality time with friends.
Yasamin Miller - Executive Director
Our team is led by Yasamin, Phil’s wife of 19 years, and constant companion as he traveled the world meeting and helping individuals in the hospitality industry. Given her presence with Phil over the years, she has a solid understanding of Phil’s vision and has been privileged to develop close relationships with Phil’s extensive network. Most importantly, she is committed to continuing the valuable service that Phil offered, connecting great talent with great organizations.
Yasamin is an entrepreneur in her own right, with over 20 years of experience, having founded and successfully directed two of her own businesses: Yasamin Miller Group, and Cornell University’s Survey Research Institute. This extensive practical experience has given her the foundation to ensure that the organization Phil created will continue to serve the hospitality community now and into the future.
In November, 2019, the Cornell Hotel Society awarded Yasamin the high honor of lifetime member.
Advisory Board
Ted Teng ‘79
Ted Teng was President and CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) for 10 years. He reignited the nine-decade old brand with innovative strategies. Through his leadership LHW achieved unprecedented member hotel revenue in 2018, surpassing $1 billion for the first time in the company’s history. Teng’s career, spanning 40 years, has been rooted in hospitality industry. Prior to joining LHW, he led the growth of some of the world’s most prominent hotel brands, serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of Wyndham International, Inc., and President, Asia-Pacific, for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. In addition, Teng has been dedicated to developing the future generation of hospitality leaders through his service at his alma mater, The School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, as well as other hospitality schools and development programs around the world.
Teng is a member of the Cornell Hotel Society and is the current 2nd Vice President of the society.
Reneta McCarthy ‘84 MPS ‘01
Reneta McCarthy has ten years of hotel operations experience and she spent 25 years teaching at the Cornell University Hotel School. After graduating from the Cornell Hotel School 1984 she began her career with Marriott International, where she worked as a housekeeping manager and then as director of services in the full-service hotel division. She later transferred to Courtyard Hotels by Marriott, where she became one of the youngest Courtyard General Managers. McCarthy returned to Cornell in 1992 to begin work on her master's degree, and a year later became the director of rooms at The Statler Hotel.
She later joined the Hotel School faculty and was responsible for teaching Hotel Operations to all freshmen and transfer students from 1995-2020. She also taught courses in Wellness & Spas and Casino Operations. McCarthy has taught and advised every Cornell Hotel School undergrad for those 25 years and maintains her connection to many of them. She has assisted students in finding career launching positions with STR, Four Seasons, Hilton, Marriott, White Lodging, The Breakers, Duetto, and many other companies. She has also assisted many with placements further into their careers.
Richard Adie ‘75
Richard Adie, a graduate of the Cornell University Hotel School, was the Managing Director of The Statler Hotel at Cornell University, a position he held for sixteen years until retirement in September of 2018. Prior to joining the School of Hotel Administration he worked with Hyatt Hotels for twenty-seven years. During that tenure he opened three hotels as General Manager in Houston, Denver and San Francisco. He also served as General Manager of Hyatt’s largest hotel, the 2,000 room Hyatt Regency Chicago. While with Hyatt he was recognized at General Manager of the year. In 2017 Adie was selected General Manager of the year for the state of New York by the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association.
Adie is a past Chairman of the Tompkins County Strategic Tourism Board. He previously held the position of Chairman of the Kansas City Convention and Visitors Board.
Adie is the Secretary of the Cornell Hotel Society Global Board. He is also an advisor to the Yinxing School of Hospitality Management in Chengdu China.
Russell Urban ‘81
Russell Urban is a hospitality professional with 39 years of US and global institutional and entrepreneurial experience in operations, development, acquisition, strategy, transactions and finance. He has proven leadership roles, from a corporate, project and hotel property perspective, focusing on talent acquisition and development, collaborative decision-making, culture building and results-driven financial accountability as President of several companies: High Hotels, Island Resort Collection and Urban Hotel Corporation. Further, Urban has demonstrated hotel real estate expertise through all aspects of resort, urban and suburban acquisition and development projects including site selection, entitlements, financing, pre-construction, architectural, design, construction, and management contract/lease negotiations and historic tax credits through executive roles at Destination Hotels and Reports, HEI Hotels and Resorts and Marriott Corporation.
He continues strong industry and community engagement as a board/committee member and/or industry speaker through hospitality/tourism, philanthropic/humanity, and educational organizations including his current roles as Vice Chairman of Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and a senior Board member of Discover Lancaster, a rapidly growing destination marketing organization.
He served as President of the Cornell Hotel Society globally in 2003.
Deniz Omurgonulsen ‘00
Deniz Omurgonulsen is Vice President of Membership for The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW). She is responsible for global membership of LHW, overseeing development, quality, and business performance for more than 400 hotels in the portfolio. Prior to joining The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. Omurgonulsen worked with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts in operations, based at The Pierre Hotel in New York City. In addition to her property responsibilities, she conducted numerous successful corporate-wide training and quality initiatives, including participating in pre-opening hotel training teams and implementing a global e-learning platform.
She served as President of the New York Chapter for Cornell Hotel Society (CHS) in 2008 and was on the executive board from 2013-2016. She was appointed as President of the global CHS organization in 2015. She is currently on the Cornell University Council and member of the CHS Foundation.
Richy Petrina ‘01
Richy Petrina is the founder and President of Ithaca Wine Ventures (IWV) and ambassador of the Finger Lakes Wine region. His industry experience is comprised of multiple fields within beverage/alcohol including: business intelligence, wholesale sales and marketing, sales planning and finance, luxury marketing, strategic business development, and DTC. After +6 years with Charmer Sunbelt (currently Breakthru Beverage Group), he spent 10+ years with LVMH Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy where he most recently started their direct-to-customer private and corporate sales channel for wines and spirits in the USA. Over the years he has successfully partnered with many luxury brands and organizations in creating elevated experiences, often invited to present as subject-area expert. His passion often takes him to notable schools to educate hundreds of MBA students each year.
He is the President of the Finger Lakes Chapter for the Cornell Hotel Society (CHS) and serves on the James Beard Foundation Awards Committee. He is actively involved with The Cornell Hotel School global alumni and local community through mentoring, serving as executive in residence, and frequent guest-lecturing.
Elizabeth Martyn ‘07, MSC ‘18
Elizabeth Martyn is passionate about Customer Experience and has an extensive background in the luxury travel and guest services industry, including guest relations, operations execution, brand positioning, and marketing and digital engagement.
After graduation from the Cornell Hotel School she began her career with the luxury destination club, Exclusive Resorts. Her expertise lies in streamlining operations, building effective service delivery systems to ensure consistency in the guest experience, and understanding performance through data capture and analytics. She has been able to apply that expertise to non-traditional service industries, across an array of best-in-class brands.
Elizabeth consults for a range of clients through her firm, Sophos Hospitality Consulting, was an interim undergraduate instructor at the School of Hotel Administration, and develops online training content in collaboration with the School of Hotel Administration and eCornell. She is the author of the online Cornell University Service Excellence On-Demand Training. Elizabeth holds both a bachelor’s degree and a Master of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Tom Cleary ‘89
Tom Cleary specializes in risk management consulting and insurance placement for hospitality companies (hotels, resorts, clubs, timeshares, restaurants) and related industries. His education and training have provided Tom tremendous expertise in evaluating and improving commercial insurance programs (property, liability, umbrella, workers compensation, employee benefits, etc.). Clients range from large, publicly traded operators with multiple properties to smaller properties within a group buying program that Tom designed.
Prior to insurance, Tom held management positions with Hyatt Hotels in the engineering departments Hyatt Orlando, Hyatt Regency Aruba and Hyatt Tampa. He has worked in a variety of positions with restaurants the country, and spent a year working for DeVere
Hotels (the Dormy Hotel) in Bournemouth, England. This background has caused Tom tobe selected as a guest lecturer for the insurance and risk management class at Cornell University’s Hotel School, as well as for the American Resort Developers Association (ARDA) and the Hotel Asset Managers Association (HAMA), and American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) Resort Committee. Based out of Clearwater, Florida, Tom currently serves as President of the Cornell Hotel Society Gold Coast Chapter.