MSU's School of Hospitality Alumni Association honors two professors with academic achievement awards

The School of Hospitality Business Alumni Association at Michigan State University awarded Dr. Michael Olsen and Prof. John Drysdale its 2009 Lifetime Academic Achievement Award. The award is given to alumni whose lifetime careers in the academy have had a lasting and significant impact on hospitality education and those who study and teach it.

Olsen (pictured below) is an emeritus professor of strategic management in the hospitality industry in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and chairman of the Olsen Group Inc., a firm providing strategic visioning leadership to the global hospitality industry. He earned his bachelor’s degree from MSU's School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management and his MBA at MSU. He earned his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech.


Drysdale (pictured below), who earned his bachelor’s from the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at MSU and his master's of science in administration from Central Michigan University, is a professor emeritus at Johnson County Community College in Overland, Kan., where he taught in the hospitality management department. He also is the CEO of Hospitality Publishing LLC.


The school will honor Olsen and Drysdale today at the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference in San Francisco.