Bio
Miguel Bendrao Baltazar, holds a Master degree of Management in Hospitality (AACSB accredited MBA) from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, New York, USA. Miguel brings along 14 years of international hospitality management work experience achieving general management positions in the restaurant and hotel industries. Miguel had several hotel management positions including general manager of two different small size hotels. After his Masters degree, he fully dedicated to hospitality higher education in Portugal, Switzerland, Spain and Puerto Rico. He has in his portfolio 12 years of teaching, administrating and advising international hospitality management experience in the public and private sectors.
He currently works as a Lecturer at James Madison University School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management Harrisonburg VA (USA). In this public university he currently teaches a seniors only new core course Hospitality Revenue Management (HM441) and another course targeted to juniors on Introduction to the Hospitality Industry (HM211). After Les Roches, JMU Hart School is the second higher education institution he has introduced Revenue Management at the undergraduate degree level. He also participates in a few academic committees and he is the adviser to the JMU Chapter of the The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), the newest Hart school hospitality students’ organization. Previous portfolio experience includes supervising BBA Honor Thesis, teaching Revenue Management at the MBA and BBA level, Hotel Operations and Marketing courses in several prestigious Schools of Hospitality.
The experiences he went through helped him to rise above difficulties and helped to make him more self-reliant, resilient, responsible and disciplined. From Monte-Carlo to Angola, from Switzerland to the USA, his experiences made him see how important the knowledge and skills that research offers are in life. Miguel’s operations and academic background – a Master in Management Hospitality, a Licentiate’s Degree in Tourism and Hotel Management and a BSc also in Hotel Management – together with his extensive teaching experience will also be important in integrating any course and research knowledge into the hospitality context. With his hard and dedicated academic work contribution, he will help to produce a place where the best of the ideas about professional hospitality management education have been sought, brought forward, shared and nurtured. In doing so, he is committed to positively affect the lives of students and other stakeholders who will pass through the doors of his higher education institution, preparing them well for a career in the industry.
He is fluent in Portuguese (mother tongue), English, French and Spanish and he is profound (speaking and writing) in Italian. He describes himself as a high energy, hardworking and knowledgeable dedicated professional with positive attitude towards both customers and students, with a natural communication and teaching proclivity.
Statement of academic work philosophy
Miguel believes his international hospitality management education, teaching and research work will use all the skills and experiences that he has accumulated up to this point, but also make them grow to the next level in the academia. His practitioner and academic management experience consolidated internationally, makes him a well knowledgeable on current world educational trends and on balancing between service education and serving the industry by well preparing graduates. In teaching, he believes that to enlarge the “picture” of the industry it will only be possible with experiential learning (e.g. internships), by studding real situations, researching and working out real problems with others, when possible, bringing experienced managers and other guest speakers. Understanding the practice and the theory in a variety of settings, mixed with a lot of efforts and service dedicated attitude, will be the perfect recipe to achieve success. He has taken as his guiding principle in teaching getting the attention of students, effectively communicating and planting in their minds persistent ideas that are often contrary to prevailing wisdom, result of up to date research or proven experience. With the right attitude, curiosity and a daily Socratic approach to become better humans, he shares the wise thoughts of Anatole France, (1844-1924) who once famously said: “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterward.”
He is a husband and a father of two; his favorite hobby is playing tennis and skiing during the winter. He lives in Harrisonburg (Virginia, U.S.) with his family.
Resume
Miguel Baltazar RESUME_July2014
Let’s spice this professional portfolio with a bit of humor?
Do you remember Gru, the super villain character in the computer-animated 3D comedy film from Universal Pictures Despicable Me, who adopts 3 girls? Although Miguel has nothing of ‘evilness’, he has a resemblance with Steve Carell’s movie personality: his voice! Since English was Miguel’s second foreign mastered language, after French, it is possible that you will find (as many other students first noticed) this similitude ;-))