Kaye (Kye-Sung) Chon, Ph.D., is a former Professor and Director of the Tourism Industry Institute at Conrad N. Hilton College at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. Currently, Dr. Chon is the Chair Professor and Director of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has published over two hundred articles on hospitality industry issues. Dr. Chon is the executive editor of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research as well as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing and the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research. In 1993, Dr. Chon received the prestigious John Wiley & Sons Award from the Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education for his lifetime achievement in scholarship and research.


Thomas A. Maier, Ph.D, is an International Professor of Service Leadership and Innovation at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Dubai. He is also the president of TAM - Global Services Inc. He has acquired a wide range of hospitality, development, and practical business experience over the past twenty-five years working for the Starwood and Red Lion Hotel brands. Most recently, he served as vice president of hotel operations for the Red Lion Hotel Corporation from 2001 until 2008, having held various management positions within that corporation since 1992. Dr. Maier was recently named the recipient of the RIT-2008 Paul Kazmierski Memorial Award from the School of Hospitality and Service Management for his achievements in and commitment to the field of human resource development.