Dave Roberts

Biography

Dave Roberts is an award-winning professor, author, and former hospitality executive. Roberts joined the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business faculty in 2020; he teaches courses in Lodging Operations and Channel Distribution. He previously taught graduate courses in business strategy and corporate finance at Virginia Tech.

Roberts has won teaching awards at Cornell for both of his courses, and he received HSMAI’s 2023 Educator of the Year Award for Revenue Optimization. In 2022, he published his first book, Hotel Revenue Management: The Post-Pandemic Evolution to Revenue Strategy. Roberts also co-authored the Guide to Commercial Strategy, published in June of 2023. He is currently developing a Commercial Strategy Certification, in partnership with Kalibri Labs.

Roberts retired from Marriott International in 2019, after 23 years with the company. He was the senior vice president of revenue strategy and solutions, with global responsibility for revenue management, analytics, and sales systems. He was on IBM’s Business Analytics Advisory Board for six years. Prior to Marriott, Roberts was a manager in the finance department at American Airlines and a technical consultant on missile defense for the U.S. Department of Defense. He has a BS and an MS in operations research from Cornell, and an MBA from Northwestern University, majoring in finance and economics. He holds a U.S. patent on a software product and has published several academic papers.

Recent Courses

• HADM 1350 - Introduction to Hotel Operations
• HADM 4470 - Managing Hospitality Distribution

Academic Degrees

• MBA Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1993
• MEng Cornell University, 1988
• BS Cornell University, 1987