Three recent graduates — Jami Quan, Brooks Kircheimer and Matt Landes — have experienced their share of adventures together as roommates at DU. Soon, they’ll start their next great adventure together when they start their jobs at a new resort, Montage Hotels and Resorts-Beverly Hills (Calif.).
“We’ve been friends from the first intro to hospitality class,” says Landes. “Brooks liked my extroverted way of learning and loud question asking.”
“The next thing you now, we are all friends.”
The Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management(HRTM) majors were recruited by Montage for junior management positions in the resort’s food and beverage division.
Opening Nov. 4, the Five Star/Five Diamond Montage Beverly Hills will offer residential real estate, premiere dining, a luxurious spa, meeting space, street-level retail boutiques, public colonnades and gardens connecting Beverly and Canon Drives near the famed Rodeo Drive.
General Manager Ali Kasicki, who has been named one of the three top hoteliers in the world by Gourmet magazine, recruited graduates for his open positions at only two universities — DU and Cornell. Of the nine DU students who interviewed, Kasicki made four job offers.
“This is the first hotel to open in Beverly Hills in 20 years, and the company will be expanding. To be able to work for company with such potential is wonderful,” Kircheimer says.
While the details of their positions are not yet clear, each grad will be assigned to a different food and beverage outlet at the resort “We’re not going into a training program, but going directly into manager or assistant manager positions,” Landes says. “They are going to throw us in the fire and see if we swim.”
Quan feels confident that she is well prepared for the challenge. “The work experience and internship requirements of DU’s HRTM program have prepared us much more than a general management program would have,” she says.
The three feel fortunate to be able to stay together beyond college. “We are all from the L.A. area, and Jami and Brooks even went to high school together in Pasadena,” Landes says. “This is an extremely unique opportunity to stay together.”
While they have yet to decide whether they will continue to be roommates in Beverly Hills, Landes knows that working together will be both a challenge and joy.
“It will be a good test of our friendship.”