Several officials from luxury hotel brands urged students to consider careers in hospitality at a student-led Georgetown University forum April 23.
Georgetown’s Retail and Luxury Association (GRLA), a student group dedicated to informing undergraduates on the professional opportunities within the retail and luxury industries, hosted the inaugural Hospitality Forum, where representatives of luxury hotel brands such as Hilton, Marriott, Four Seasons and Auberge Resorts Collection discussed brand identity, customer service and career development. The forum included four panels that aimed to educate students on what a luxury service should entail for guests and the marketing tactics behind luxury groups.
Katherine Sotirhos (CAS ’25), head of development for GRLA, said the symposium was part of GRLA’s goal of educating students who are considering a career in retail.
“We strive to educate students on the retail and luxury industry at large,” Sotirhos told The Hoya. “So within that, we have many different speakers come. Some are in the fashion industry, some are from the hospitality industry. We basically act as that bridge in order to educate students on the different retail luxury-like industries, allowing students to kind of have that opportunity to, you know, explore future career paths.”
Tina Edmundson, Marriott’s president of luxury, and Dino Michael, Hilton’s luxury senior vice president, participated in a panel on managing multiple brands under the same corporate umbrella.
Edmundson said each brand in Marriott’s company, which includes the luxury hotel Ritz-Carlton, maintains a unique identity to which marketing has to cater.
“Our individual brands, of course, have their unique positioning,” Edmundson said at the event. “They have target audiences, they have core values and they are all creating experiences that clearly matter to that positioning to maintain very tight swim lanes.”
Michael said that, while it is important to position individual brands, Hilton works to maintain a focus on hospitality across the entire company.
“Our founder, Conrad Hilton, very famously talked about this warmth of hospitality,” Michael said at the event. “For us, that umbrella covers all of our brands and how we define our brands.”
“To build individual culture that dovetails with our overarching corporate culture — to do that takes time and energy, and you really want to be able to articulate that pretty clearly to all of our team members and design for that specific guest that you’re aspiring to,” Michael added.

Michael said he originally studied law but joined the hospitality industry for its production aspect.
“I guess the only influences are my father and the finesse of tailoring and, I guess, the showmanship and storytelling of restaurants,” Michael said. “It’s no surprise I eventually ended up in hospitality.”
Edmundson said students should be open to many career paths within the hospitality industry.
“You are young in your career, and so go broad,” Edmundson said. “Whether you’ve decided that you’re going to be in hospitality, don’t be narrow in your focus. One, it will help you find your passion, but two, and almost more importantly, it’ll really help you find what you hate doing, so that you would avoid that.”
The event featured three other panels that covered media perceptions of luxury services, real estate acquisition for growing brands and luxury transport companies servicing yachts and planes for guests.
Sotirhos said the large student interest in hospitality allows GRLA to attract high-profile speakers from popular brands, helping club members network.
“We do tend to get some pretty big names, but it’s really not a coincidence, because we have a huge network of people who have been in GRLA,” Sotirhos said. “One of the things we really press our members about is just network, network, network, and just talk to people, especially being at Georgetown.”
Michael said interested students should consider engaging with the hospitality industry globally, noting how his career has helped him grow.
“A lot of the perspective I have is from others — earning from others and their radically different perspectives to mine and their different upbringings,” Michael said. “So I would say, take any opportunity you have to live somewhere new, try something new and work somewhere new.”