Richy Petrina '01

Richy Petrina ’01 is the current Global President of the Cornell Hotel Society. Founded in 1928, CHS is an independent, self-funded, and volunteer-run non-profit organization with over fifty chapters on six continents. CHS organizes over 100 annual events that engage and inspire thousands of Hotelies around the world to support each other, the hospitality industry as a whole, and the Nolan Hotel School at Cornell University. Since its founding, CHS has endowed over $7.3 million in scholarships that pay out approximately $500K in student financial support each year.

Philanthropically beyond CHS, Richy serves on the Cornell University Council and on the Awards Committee for the James Beard Foundation, leading one of its Beverage-related initiatives. He actively supports the Wine Club, the Hospitality Club, and the Retail & Luxury Club for the Johnson MBA students as an industry liaison… as well as the MMH Students at Nolan as an alumni resource. He is a frequent guest lecturer on the Cornell campus and over the years has presented over 100 times to MBA students in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Cambridge and France.

Professionally, Richy has worked for two organizations since graduation; Breakthru Beverage [2002 – 2008]; and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton [2008 – 2019], where he started MH Private, its global direct to consumer business model. It was an early summer internship in 1999 at Castello Banfi in Montalcino that started his enduring passion for wine.

Richy specializes in luxury client development and currently advises Tiffany & Co (Global), Moët Hennessy (Americas), and Edrington (USA) through his small startup based in his hometown of sunny Ithaca, NY.