Michelle has more than 35 years of practical, hands-on experience with hotels, restaurants, resorts, convention centers, real estate, and finance. She has worked on thousands of hotel assets across the United States and in 2003, founded Hotel Asset Value Enhancement. While she oversees the practice, she is very involved in defining the forward outlook that establishes how the company manages its portfolio to maximize results, strategic asset positioning, management contract negotiations, and interacting with senior-level brand and management executives on behalf of the portfolio. She is also a Certified New York State Part 36 Judiciary Receiver.
Michelle is an ALIS Award Winner, named Jack A. Shaffer Financial Advisor of the Year 2022. She has been named one of the 30 Influential Women in Hospitality by Hotel Management Magazine (October 2017), one of 20 Women in Lodging by Lodging Magazine (September 2015) and one of 15 Women of Hospitality Finance by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). HotelAVE is a 100% Women Owned Business Entity certified through the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE).
Prior to founding hotelAVE, Michelle was Vice President, Senior Leisure Analyst for Deutsche Banc Alex Brown where she garnered capital markets experience covering lodging and leisure (including cruise, ski and golf industries). Michelle also managed a $500M portfolio for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company where she improved the portfolio and achieved 20% cash-on-cash returns.
Michelle is a regular guest lecturer at Cornell University and has appeared on CNBC and CNN to provide commentary on the hospitality and leisure industry. She is a regular guest speaker at NYU, ALIS, ULI, Boston University, BLLA, Distressed Hotel Summit, Hunter Hotel Conference, IHRSA National Convention, and Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention. Michelle serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, the AHLA’s Hospitality Investment Roundtable, and AHLA’s Global Finance Committee. She is a former board member of Morgans Hotel Group and former member of ULI’s Hotel Council, the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Leadership Council, Marriott’s Distribution Strategy Advisory Committee, and the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at Cornell University. She is also a two-time past president of the Hospitality Asset Manager Association (HAMA), a Certified Hotel Asset Manager (CHAM), Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) and a Member of the Appraisal Institute (MAI).