Michael D. Olsen Professor of Hospitality Strategy Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (USA) Pesonal page: http://www.htm.pamplin.vt.edu/faculty/olsen.html

Prof. Olsen received his Ph.D at Virginia Tech where he was founding head of the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management in 1987; he was also founding president of the International Academy of Hospitality Research.

Currently, he is the Director of Research for the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and Chairman of Olsen Group, Inc., a firm providing strategic visioning leadership to the global hospitality industry.

In industry associations he has served as chairman of the Economics Committee of the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and as member of the finance committee of the American Hotel and Motel Association. He has also served on the education and human resource committees of the National Restaurant Association. Prof. Olsen is a Life Fellow member of the Society for the Advancement of Foodservice Research and a Fellow of the International Academy of Hospitality Research.

In over 30 years of industry and academic experience Prof. Olsen has authored, coauthored and edited 8 books and manuals as well as over 220 articles in both trade and professional journals. He has served for ten years (1988-97) as the Associate Editor of the International Journal of Hospitality Management, published in Oxford England.

Prof. Olsen has also held the following distinguished professor positions: The Conti Professor at Pennsylvania State University, the Darden Eminent Scholar Chair in Restaurant Management at the University of Central Florida and the Shaw Foundation Professorship at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

At AILUN Prof. Olsen teaches hospitality strategy.

Some publications

Connolly, D., Michael D. Olsen, and R. Moore (1998), Competitive advantage-Luxury hotels and the information superhighway, published jointly for the Center For Hospitality Research, Cornell University, and the International Hotel & Restaurant Association, 190 pgs

Michael D. Olsen, Tse, E., & West, J. J. (1998), Strategic management in the hospitality industry, 2nd edition.  John Wiley and Sons, NY

Michael D. Olsen, Richard Teare and Evert Gummesson (Eds.). (1995), Service quality in hospitality organizations, Cassell Publications. London, England

Khan, M. A., Michael D. Olsen, & Var, T. (Eds.) (1993), Encyclopedia of the hospitality industry, Van Nostrand Reinhold: NY, NY

Michael D. Olsen, Tse, E., & West, J. J. (1992), Strategic management in the hospitality industry, Van Nostrand Reinhold: NY, NY

Teare, R. & Michael D. Olsen (Eds.) (1992), International hospitality management: Corporate strategy in practice, Pitman Publishing: London, UK. Translated into Korean 1999

Michael D. Olsen (1985), Food and beverage management published by the Jamaican Tourist Board, 76 pages, completed under a project grant from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Michael D. Olsen (1985), General management in the hospitality industry published by Jamaican Tourist Board, 80 pages, completed under a project grant from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

Michael D. Olsen, (1985), Foodservice distributor buyer's manual, 200 pages, published by the International Foodservice Distributors Association, Falls Church, VA

Michael D. Olsen, (1979), Manual for cost based accounting for Virginia School Food Service, Extension Publication #774, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg