David Ran graduated in 2019 with a MS in Hospitality Industry Studies from the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. He is currently Senior Analyst, Asset Management at LW Hospitality Advisors, a leading hospitality valuation and advisory services firm focused on hotels, resorts, gaming properties, and conference center assets worldwide.
What has your journey been like after graduating NYU?
By the time I graduated from NYU, I had already been working at LW Hospitality for over a year, from my role as part-time intern to full-time intern and eventually receiving a full-time offer a few months before graduation. Therefore, quite frankly my life didn’t change much because of my graduation.
Can you talk about your current role at LW Hospitality Advisors?
I started full-time at the company as Asset Management Analyst and was recently promoted to Senior Analyst. While my job title says Asset Management, it is only one aspect of what we do at LW. In addition to traditional hotel asset management, our team’s expertise also lies in feasibility studies, due diligence analysis, market studies as well as various litigation support.
While the COVID-19 Pandemic wreaked havoc in hotel and travel industry, our business wasn’t affected as much as the broader industry was. By some measures, our business volume has actually seen an uptick in recent months due to hotel owners’ need to re-align their objectives as well as developers’ increasing optimism for the travel to return.
Since the onset of the pandemic, we have seen clients scaling back hotel staffing to skeleton level, shutting down properties and may not reopen in the near future, if at all. And we use our experience and expert analysis to help guiding them through these truly uncharted waters.
What are you passionate about in the work that you do?
I love how the job assignments we work on can vary so drastically from one another, we wake up every day ready to embark on a brand-new journey. It is also fun to work with clients with radically different objectives and backgrounds.
In what ways has your NYU experience had an impact on your career and shaped who you are today?
First and foremost, I became aware of LW Hospitality and became an intern at the firm through one of my NYU classes.
The one thing I loved about my NYU experience is how current the class materials are, with most of the professors and guest lecturers still very active in the work field rather than being purely academic. The way the professors and lecturers incorporate real life cases and experience into the class material is truly invaluable to young and aspiring professionals like myself. And the relationships and connections we cultivate at NYU with our school mates and industry professionals can and will be instrumental in achieving our professional goals.
What career advice would you give to NYU students?
Immerse yourself in the melting pot that is New York University and New York City. Stay involved, be brave and enjoy the ride.