Leora Halpern Lanz

Leora Halpern Lanz is a Boston University School of Hospitality lecturer.

Lanz has been an active leader and participant in the field of hospitality marketing since 1985, and has always been at the forefront of strategic marketing and communications. She was named the 2010 Hospitality Marketing Executive of the Year by the Big Apple (Greater New York) chapter of Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI).

Lanz serves as President of LHL Communications, assisting hotels and hospitality organizations with content marketing, branding, media relations, digital and social media advisory, and on-line reputation management, including: development of internal and external position statements; content creation and story-telling for audience engagement and connections; media training, and “branding” and “solutions” sales training.

Lanz served, for 15 years as Global Director of Marketing & Communications for HVS, a leading international hospitality consulting and services firm. She was responsible for overseeing the internal and external marketing communications for the organization’s multitude of offices, services, conferences, and articles and research. She directed the firm’s global business teams for Marketing and Communications, Graphic Standards, Internal Communications, Social Media, Conference Branding and the Market Connections annual event. She also managed and edited the firm’s weekly newsletter, the Global Hospitality Report and was the company’s primary media contact.

Simultaneously, Lanz directed HVS’s Sales & Marketing division, working directly with a myriad of hotel properties and companies, hospitality related services, and other entertainment and recreational venues. Leora and her team of experienced marketing communications specialists provided strategic planning, innovative sales training and action planning, social media marketing and publicity, and big-picture branding consultancy.

Prior to joining HVS, Lanz served for 10 years as Director of Public Relations and Advertising for the ITT Sheraton Hotels of New York and for five years as Director of Public Relations for the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. With ITT Sheraton, she ran the public relations and advertising operations for six hotels and played a significant public relations role for the hotels during the 1992 Democratic National Convention, and for numerous hotel openings since that time. While in Boston, she spearheaded the citywide promotion of the Monet exhibition and was invited by the Japan National Tourist Organization to teach destination marketing to tourism officials there. During her graduate studies she also handled public relations activities for the (then) new Four Seasons Hotel at the Boston Common.