Cornell University to sponsor Industry Awards Dinner

Officials of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration today announced that Marriott International will be the title sponsor of the second annual Cornell Icon of the Industry Awards Dinner.  This year’s event will honor the 2010 Icon of the Industry, Class of 1956 alumnus Chuck Feeney, co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers and founding chairman of The Atlantic Philanthropies.  The event also honors the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship’s 2010 Hospitality Innovator Award winner, Solomon Kerzner, founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of Kerzner International.

The annual awards dinner features a gathering of the world’s most influential hospitality and travel leaders coming together to support Cornell School of Hotel Administration scholarships and programs.  The event will be held on June 8, 2010, at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m.  The dinner and awards ceremony will follow.

Officials also announced that J.W. “Bill” Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International, Inc., and inaugural winner of the Icon Award, along with the school’s dean and E. M. Statler Professor, Michael Johnson, will co-present the award to Feeney.  Marriott was presented the award last year in recognition for his extraordinary industry, community, and philanthropic leadership.  He is a member of the National Business Council and the Executive Committee of the World Travel & Tourism Council.  Click here for full report from STR and Hotel News Now…