The Power of Planning
Mindshare Board Member, Stephen Weisz profiled in Cornell School of Hotel Administration Alumni Magazine Hotelie.
Hospitality in hostile times
When Stephen Weisz was thinking about college, he just assumed he’d go to business school, but his next-door neighbor, Dick Schoff ’53, had other ideas. “He said, ‘Have you ever thought about the hotel school?’ And I said, ‘Well, not really.’ So he gave me a course catalog. I read it, I got interested, I applied, went up for an interview, and fell in love with the place.”
Weisz enjoyed his time at Cornell, especially running Hotel Ezra Cornell as managing director, a job that ended up presenting extra challenges in those turbulent times on campus. Just as his event opened, a group of students took over the Engineering Library in Carpenter Hall to protest a recruiting visit by Dow Chemical. Then they noticed the hotel school gathering in the Statler Inn.
“In the midst of the cocktail party, somebody threw a rock through the window of the lounge!” said Weisz. “Two of my guests lit out of there and decided they were going to go take on the students who did this. Fortunately, the campus police were on the ball and interceded.” After he graduated, Weisz joined Marriott as a management trainee at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, VA. It was the beginning of a long and dynamic career with the organization, culminating with his current position as president of Marriott Vacation Club International.
One of the highlights of his career came in 1988 when he brought the practice of revenue management to the organization. At that time, this technique of maximizing revenue from existing inventory was new to hotels. He’s using some of the same knowledge to handle the current economic down turn. “This has been a consumer-led recession which has cascaded into the business environment,” said Weisz. “My analogy is that we have moved from an era of conspicuous consumption to now value is king. And if you’re not value-focused, you’re probably not going to win the war.
”In a similar way, the vehicle he chose for his gift to Cornell—the charitable lead annuity trust—maximizes his funds by providing not only for Cornell but for his children as well. The double duty that this giving mechanism provides appeals to his desire to do the most he can with what he’s been blessed with.
Weisz and his wife, Linda, contributed enough to generate $50,000 in annual income for Cornell for 20 years, a gift that will total $1 million. If all goes well, the core fund will grow and leave a substantial remainder for his children, free of estate taxes. (Like their father, Scott Weisz ’01 and Kristin Weisz ’04were both managing directors of HEC.)
Weisz, who taught operations courses at the school for 13 years until his business commitments became too cumbersome, is dedicated to the idea that the Hotelie experience extends beyond the classroom and beyond the campus. For this reason, his gift is being used to support the Statler Hotel’s Leadership Development Program and the Weisz Family Statler Hotel Operations Fellowship Award, a postgraduate fellowship that allows the recipient to stay on at the Statler for a year after graduation, gaining management experience.
Weisz strongly encourages other Hotelies to remember Cornell when they do their estate planning. “Any one of us who graduated from that school graduated into a network of alumni who believe very strongly in the school and want to perpetuate its existence for a very long time,” he said. “If people have the means and they’re thinking about ways in which they’d like to help, helping the school that helped us in the very early stages of getting our careers started is a very logical place to invest money. It makes sense to give back to a school that has given to us.”
Giving back
Both Beck and Weisz have found that planned giving gives them the power to link their futures to the future of the SHA in a very gratifying way. “I had very fond memories and was very thankful for my opportunities at Cornell,” said Weisz. “The fact that both of my kids went there reinforced those feelings further. I was committed to trying to do something to give back.”
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