Industry Hotshots Archive

Dr. Michael Kasavana

What is your job title?
NAMA Endowed Professor of Hospitality Business

What are some of your responsibilities?
Teaching, research, and service related to hospitality information systems (specific focus on automation in hotels, restaurants, clubs, vending, and casinos).

What do you like most about your job?
Interacting with students and industry practitioners.

What do you like least about your job?
Inability to afford state of the art hardware and software to test and implement new solutions or experiment with innovative approaches.

Did you go to undergraduate school? Where? What was your major?
I attended the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for three degrees. My majors were as follows: Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration (BS), Financial Management (MBA) and Management Information Systems (Ph.D.)

What is your favorite movie?
Favorite movie is Singing in the Rain

What is your favorite song?
Favorite song is This Old Heart of Mine by the Eisley Brothers

What is your favorite line from a movie or song?
“Go ahead, make my Day!”

What was your first job?
Assistant to the Owner (one of three employees) at the Amherst Motor Inn

What was your most interesting day at work?
Late night checkin in which a VW bug drove right into the front office area and crashed the outside wall. No one was injured; the driver arrested; the coke machine was wiped out and bottles began exploding waking sleeping guests who started demanding their money back.

What would you do if you won the lottery?
Retire to ocean front living and invest so that I would not be needing to work again.

When you are not working what do you enjoy doing?
Running, trampoline/gymnastics, movies, powerpoint slide creation, reading, sky diving and writing.

What is the next technology to impact the hospitality industry?
Wearable computers will soon appear everywhere on the hospitality automation landscape.

mailto:Kasavana@msu.edu

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