The REFE Board

The REFE Institute is advised by a distinguished board comprised of leaders from industry and academe. The advisory board members help in shaping the direction of the institute and bring relevant expertise from their respective areas.” The members are appointed for a three-year term by the executive Dean of the school on recommendation from the Institute Director and Manager. Here is the list of our current Advisory Board members:

REFE Board:

Dr. Barry Bloom
Mr. Cody Bradshaw
Dr. Jeffrey Fischer
Mr. Roland Füss
Dr. Martin Hoesli
Mr. Russell Kett
Dr. Peng Liu
Mr. Christophe Piffaretti

Board Profiles

Dr. Barry Bloom

Barry A.N. Bloom, Ph.D. is President and Chief Operating Officer of Xenia Hotels & Resorts, Inc., a NYSE-listed real estate investment trust. He currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Central Florida and Florida International University and served as a Conti Professor at Penn State for the 2018-2019 academic year. From 2011 to 2013, Mr. Bloom served as an Associate Professor of the Practice in the School of Hospitality Administration at Boston University.

From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Bloom co-founded and was a Principal of Abacus Lodging Investors LLC. Previously, Mr. Bloom was Executive Vice President of Portfolio Management & Administration with CNL Hotels & Resorts, Inc. and prior to CNL, he served as Vice President – Investment Management for Hyatt Hotels Corporation. In addition, Mr. Bloom has worked for Tishman Hotel & Realty, VMS Realty Partners, and Pannell Kerr Forster (now CBRE Hotels). Mr. Bloom received his B.S. in Hotel and Restaurant Management as well as an MBA from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Hospitality Management from Iowa State University.

Mr. Cody Bradshaw

Hotels. In this role, he oversees the firm’s hospitality acquisition and asset management activities across Europe and Asia Pacific. In addition, Mr. Bradshaw also oversees North America hotel asset management. His portfolio responsibilities have included numerous major lodging investments around the globe, including the Firm’s ownership of Louvre Hotels, one of the largest hotel chains in Europe with over 1,000 hotels across more than 40 countries. He also played a leading role in managing and growing The Principal Hotel Company portfolio, which included over 50 properties and 7,400 keys across the United Kingdom—highlighted by the launch of the Principal brand in 2016 as well as the restoration of the former Hotel Russell, turning it into an iconic flagship hotel of the Principal brand: The Principal London.
Prior to joining Starwood Capital, Cody was one of the first employees at Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE: PEB) where he served as Vice President of Acquisitions during the twelve-month period in which the newly-formed “blind pool” REIT deployed over $1 billion of capital through the acquisition of over 20 major lodging assets. Prior to Pebblebrook, he was the first employee of the Chartres Lodging Group where he played an integral role in growing the firm over a seven year period into what at the time was comprised of five offices across the U.S. and Japan and a 20,000-room, $6 billion portfolio of lodging assets. He began his career at Hyatt Development Corporation after graduating from Cornell University.
Cody co-created the Certified Hotel Asset Manager (""CHAM"") professional designation program which launched in 2012. He co-founded and currently serves as President of the European Chapter of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (""HAMA"") and is a leading member of the International Hotel Investment Council (“IHIC”). Mr. Bradshaw also serves on the board of directors for YOTEL.

Dr Jeffrey Fischer

Jeffrey D. Fisher, Ph.D. is a Research and Education Consultant to the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and President of the Homer Hoyt Institute. He is also a founding Partner in the Pavonis Group, LLC and on the board of RealNex which is a Pavonis Group affiliate company. He is a Professor Emeritus of Real Estate at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, a Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and serves on the advisory board of Sterling Valuation.

Dr. Fisher has served on the board of directors of the Pension Real Estate Association, the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and the Real Estate Research Institute (RERI). He received PREA/Graaskamp Award for Research Excellence from the Pension Real Estate Association, the Richard Ratcliff award and the Pioneer Award from the American Real Estate Society, the George Bloom Award from the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association and the Martin S. Katz Memorial Award from the American Property Tax Council (APTC).

He has served as an expert witness in court cases for several clients including Inland Steel, Simon Property Group and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He has consulted for the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. and the multifamily group of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). He has appeared on CNBC to discuss real estate investment and is frequently quoted by the media including the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Fisher was a founding trustee of The Appraisal Foundation that was formed in 1987 by the major appraisal organizations as a self-regulatory organization and source of standards for the appraisal industry. He served as President of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association (AREUEA) in 1990 and the 1986-87 Chairman of the Real Estate Center Directors and Chairholders’ Association. He has worked with many professional organizations to develop and teach courses and seminars including NCREIF, PREA, the Appraisal Institute, the CCIM Institute, NACORE and others.

Professor Fisher has a doctorate in Real Estate from Ohio State University. He is a coauthor of Real Estate, 9th edition published by John Wiley and Sons, coauthor of Real Estate Finance and Investments, 14th edition, published by McGraw-Hill, and coauthor of Income Property Valuation published by Dearborn. His books have been translated into Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Dr. Fisher has published numerous articles in journals such as The Journal of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, The Journal of Urban Economics, The Journal of Real Estate Research, Journal of Portfolio Management, National Tax Journal, Public Finance Quarterly, The Appraisal Journal, Real Estate Review, The Real Estate Appraiser and Analyst, Real Estate Issues, The New Corporate Finance and the Journal of Property Tax Management.

Mr Roland Füss

Roland Füss is Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of St.Gallen and Member of the Board of the Swiss Institute for Banking and Finance s/bf-HSG and of the School of Finance. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, Germany as well as a guest professor at the NTNU Business School in Trondheim, Norway. He studied economics at the University of Freiburg, Germany, from which he also obtained his doctoral degree and «habilitation». Roland Füss teaches courses in Statistics, Financial Econometrics, Real Estate Economics, and Real Estate Finance. His main research topics are in the field of empirical asset pricing, real estate finance and economics, risk management, and applied financial econometrics. His research has been published in economics and finance journals such as Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Review of Finance, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Real Estate Economics.

Dr Martin Hoesli

Martin Hoesli holds a Ph.D. in Finance and is Professor of real estate and finance at the Universities of Geneva (Switzerland) and Aberdeen (U.K.) and at the Kedge Business School (France). He has written six books and over 100 scholarly articles in real estate. He is past president of the International Real Estate Society (IRES) and of the European Real Estate Society (ERES) and a board member of the Swiss Financial Analyst Association (SFAA). He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and of the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics. He is a visiting professor at many Universities worldwide and is on the editorial board of many international real estate journals. He serves on the EPRA research committee.

Mr. Russell Kett

Russell Kett is Chairman of the London office of HVS, the leading global specialist hotel valuation, consulting, asset management and brokerage firm, which he joined in 1995.
Russell has 40+ years' specialist hotel consultancy, investment and real estate experience, focused on providing valuation, feasibility, property, brokerage, investment, asset management, strategy and related consultancy services, advising hotel, serviced apartments and hostel companies, banks, developers and investors on all aspects of their hospitality industry related interests, throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.
He is a frequent writer, moderator and speaker on the international hotel industry, especially on topics relating to hotel valuation, investment, marketing and finance. Russell received a Lifetime Achievement Award from HOSPA in 2011 and the ‘Hall of Fame’ Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hot.E hotel investment conference in London in 2017. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a member of the International Hotel Investment Council.

Dr. Peng Liu

Business, School of Hotel Administration. Dr. Liu is an editor of the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, the official journal of the American Real Estate Society. Liu’s research focuses on the interaction between financial innovations and real economy, with a specific interest in real estate finance and investment, securitization and REITs. Liu has published extensively in top-tier journals, including Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Real Estate Economics, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, among others.
Liu worked for Goldman Sachs Asset Management in New York City and held the position of senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting in Beijing. Prof. Liu is also a respectful securitization expert in China. He is the chairman of the Global Asset Allocation and Securitization Annual Conference in China and Global REIT Investment Challenge. He currently serves as the expert advisor to Shenzhen Security Exchange, China Insurance Asset Management Association and the China Securitization Forum.
Liu has received the William N. Kinnard Scholar Award from the American Real Estate Society, the Homer Hoyt Post-Doctoral Honoree from the Weimer School of Advanced Studies, and the numerous best research awards. He was named teacher of the year at the U.C. Berkeley’s master program in financial engineering.
Liu earned a PhD co-majoring in Finance and Real Estate from Haas School of Business, U. C. Berkeley and an MA in Financial Economics from Peking University and a BS in Engineering from Tsinghua University, China.

Mr. Christophe Piffaretti

As Chief Development Officer and Member of the Management Board of Kempinski Hotels SA, Christophe Piffaretti is responsible for strategically expanding the constellation of Kempinski properties around the globe.

In his role, Christophe focuses the growth of the company's footprint in current and new markets and supports the real-estate development plans. He also oversees Technical Services & Design of new build and conversion hotel projects before the pre- opening phase.

Christophe brings with him more than 25 years of a luxury hotel, real estate and development experience in international markets. He joined Kempinski Hotels from his position of leading two real estate investment funds for Credit Suisse Asset Management, where he was responsible for the strategy, development, operations and performance of a portfolio of over 150 properties in Switzerland with a total value of CHF 3.9 billion, including several hotels as well as senior living, campus and residential properties. Previously he held senior development roles with Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Residencium and La Perla International Living.

Christophe had already worked for Kempinski Hotels between 1998 and 2007, where he successfully expanded the portfolio, first as Vice President Development, then Senior Vice President Development. From 2005, he served as Managing Director of Kempinski Residences SA where he launched and developed the company’s residential business.

Christophe Piffaretti is an alumnus of Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, where he studied Hospitality Management, and holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Lausanne. He also holds an Executive MBA from Reims Business School and a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Real Estate Finance from the University of Bern and Rochester (USA).

EHL Hospitality Business School

Route de Berne 301
1000 Lausanne 25
Switzerland