Karthik Namasivayam

Karthik Namasivayam was Professor and Chair of the Department of Hospitality Management at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at the Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne, Switzerland, prior to joining RIT.

Karthik has worked in the hospitality industry for over 40 years. He has held various positions including as consultant, entrepreneur, faculty, academic administration, and hospitality management jobs across three continents – Europe, Asia, and North America. His experiences include economy and luxury full service hospitality operations.

He has taught in the US, Switzerland, India and China at the undergraduate and graduate levels and has delivered tailored Executive Education programs for national corporates. Karthik is widely published in leading hospitality and marketing journals and is well cited. His research explores the intersection between service provider and consumer. Consistent with the evolution of the hospitality industry, he researches the impact of various new technologies on consumer experience and consumer centric organizational design. He received the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education Bradford Wiley Best Published Paper award.

Karthik obtained his Master’s and PhD in Hospitality Administration from Cornell University. He has undergraduate degrees in Economics from Madras University and Hospitality Management from Institute of Catering Technology, Chennai, India. He speaks Tamil, Hindi, German, and a bit of French and Italian. He is a keen high altitude hiker, mountaineer, and an amateur photographer.