Olivier Rougié

Chief Operating Officer

Olivier’s career in the hospitality industry started in 1992, after obtaining a French Baccalaureate in mathematics and biology. In 1996, he obtained his Bachelor of Science from Switzerland’s Lausanne Hotel School (EHL). The unique internship system at EHL allowed him to gain hands on experience in food and beverage operations for several prestigious hotels and restaurants throughout Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Eager to pursue his passion for traveling the world, Olivier completed his French National Service in Singapore working for a French food and wine supplier as a Senior Sales Executive. After nearly two years in Asia, he returned to Europe and worked for a newly opened hotel and spa in the Catalan region of Spain focusing on the development of the hotel’s food and beverage offering. In 2000, Olivier completed his Masters of Management in Hospitality at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration focusing his studies on finance, accounting and revenue management.

Today, Olivier is responsible for managing the international client service teams, and is leading the expansion of RMS throughout international markets, including the opening of our Paris office in 2006 and Singapore office in 2008.

Alex Wohlhueter

Chief Financial Officer

Alex is originally from upstate New York where he also attended Cornell University and studied in the fields of Civil Engineering and Hotel Restaurant Management. With significant years of combined technical and industry experience, Alex is able to apply a high level of statistical analysis and hospitality-related expertise to the work at RMS.

As a stock holder and active board member at RMS, Alex plays an integral part in the day to day management of the firm. Since he joined the RMS team in 1998, Alex has continued to play a critical role in streamlining RMS’s services and advancing the company’s systems and business applications. Today, he is a listed author on several RMS US patents.

Alex serves in the capacity of President and directly oversees the North American based business at RMS. Alex is responsible for leading the consulting teams and providing strategic oversight for all US and Canadian clients.

John Helmes

President, Business Development

John Helmes brings to RMS a wealth of experience and expertise in the fields of Business Research, Restaurant Performance Optimization, Site Selection, Revenue Management, and Consumer Research.

John spent the last 30 years of his career working with McDonald’s during their exponential growth period. During his tenure, John held a variety of distinguished positions within the U.S. and International Business Research sectors of the company. In addition to 20 plus years research experience in the U.S., he has also extensive experience in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia and China.

He has worked, and lived, both in the USA, Japan, and Hong Kong managing Business Research functions and consulting directly with Senior Management.

John has been involved in developing Site Selection and Volume Estimation models, building Customer Behavior Models, improving Pricing and Revenue Management, and providing Strategic Consulting. John has a BA from the University of Cincinnati, and an MBA in Quantitative Methods from Loyola University of Chicago.

Today, John serves as the President of Special Projects and New Business Development for RMS. His experience and expertise continues to be a critical asset to our firm’s growth in the areas of Real Estate, Strategic Marketing, and Hotel Revenue Management.

Alfonso Delgado

President, International

Alfonso started his career in the world of hospitality in the mid-90s. After obtaining his degree in Economics he decided to focus his career on tourism and hospitality, the main industries in his home country of Spain. A post-graduate degree in Food & Beverage Strategic Management led him to a management trainee position in a resort property in southern Spain followed by a Resident Manager post at a luxury resort in the Italian Alps.

In 1998, Alfonso began his graduate studies at Cornell University, focusing his courses and research in the field of Revenue Management and Service Operations, obtaining his Masters degree in 2000. For the next 5 years, Alfonso worked for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. He first managed the development team in their industry-leading Revenue Management practice and went on to head the quality control department for the company’s luxury brand Celebrity Cruises as the Director of Brand Quality & Standards. Prior to joining RMS, Alfonso spent half of a year as General Manager onboard a luxury cruise ship sailing in the Galapagos Islands.

Today at RMS, Alfonso is responsible for leading the consulting teams servicing our international clients and expanding the client portfolio in the Asia-Pacific and European markets.

Sebastián Fernández

Vice President, Research & Development

Before moving to the United States, Sebastián taught statistics and econometrics at the University of Economic Sciences in Montevideo, Uruguay. He created a model for the Demand for Money in Uruguay for his thesis and obtained his Bachelor of Economics, graduating in the top 5% of his class.

Sebastián obtained his Masters of Business Administration at the University of Miami’s School of Business and while there, worked as a graduate assistant in the Marketing Department. While completing his Masters, he strengthened his statistical knowledge by pursuing a specialization in Management Applied Sciences.

Today, Sebastián is the Vice President of Research and Development and supports all divisions of RMS. He currently leads all research projects, and plays a fundamental role in the development and refinement of our Revenue Management, Strategic Marketing and Real Estate Services models.

John Oakes

Vice President, Information Technology

Originally from Mountain View, California, John’s interest in technology was fueled by the rapidly changing Silicon Valley. While receiving his bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems from the University of Tampa, he found a wholehearted interest in software development and system design.

Before joining RMS, John worked with several major technology companies where he contributed to numerous successful software projects. With years of experience in software development and IT infrastructure, specializing in system architecture, database design, and web application development, he adds a broad range of technical knowledge to RMS’ distinctive information technology capabilities.

Today, John is Vice President of Information Technology and is responsible for the IT Division at RMS. He leads all IT functions globally and provides strategic planning as RMS continues to grow.

Suzanne Rannie

President, Planning & Resource Development

Suzanne Rannie is a graduate of the Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration where she completed the course work for her Masters Degree. She started her career in culinary arts and has spent over thirty-three years in the hospitality industry. She has held both operations and consulting positions with organizations throughout Canada, the United States, the Bahamas, Europe, Brunei and other parts of Asia.

Various positions she has held include Corporate Training Director for Resorts International in the Bahamas, Vice President of Quality Management and Operations for two different casino companies, Vice President of Hotel Operations, and Vice President of Casino Services. In the educational field, Suzanne has also worked as a lecturer at Cornell University in New York, a lecturer for Cornell University at the Hospitality University in the Bahamas, an associate professor at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Canada, and culinary teacher at George Brown College in Toronto. Suzanne’s consulting experience includes work with Tom Kelly on the Distinguished Restaurants of North America program and management of the Exxon Mobil Travel guide inspection process. Suzanne previously worked with RMS as a full-time executive for over three years in our Tampa office.

Operating her consulting firm from Parksville, British Columbia, where she resides, Suzanne currently manages the Human Resources function at RMS, and is a member of both the RMS Executive Committee and Board of Directors. She provides expert advice to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer on corporate structure, strategic planning, and manpower planning and practices. Suzanne is a significant asset to RMS as proven with our exponential internal growth.

Leo M. Renaghan

Chief Marketing Officer

As Chief Marketing Officer, Leo is responsible for the development and implementation of RMS’s global marketing and sales strategy. He brings over 35 years of business and educational experience to this position. For many years he was a consultant and lecturer to companies in the United States, Europe and Asia on issues dealing with customer value including customer satisfaction management, service product design, return on quality and the execution of service brand strategies. He developed and implemented marketing planning systems for several international hotel brands. From 1992-2006 he was a Director of the Board of Rezidor Hospitality Inc, the fastest growing hotel company in Europe, Middle East and Africa comprising over 270 hotels. He is the former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. In that role he was instrumental in the founding of the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management in Singapore, the Hotel School’s first graduate program in Asia.

As an Emeritus Professor of Services Marketing in the school of Hotel Administration at Cornell University Leo continues his scholarly interests focusing on issues associated with the creation and management of customer value in service firms, particularly international hospitality brands. Trained as a marketer his expertise is on the strategic understanding at the interface of marketing and operations and identifying those management practices in companies that facilitate or impede long-term profitability.

At RMS Leo works to bring the strategic and quantitative modeling capabilities and expertise of RMS to the solution of client pricing, store performance, real estate site selection and forecasting and media optimization issues.