On Wednesday November 17, Daytona State College hosted Harris Rosen via online for The L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series at the Mori Hosseini building. The seminar kicked off with the four scholarship announcements. The recipients (Sherri Williams, Mitchele Jean-Francois, Amelia Houston, and Ginger Johnson) received their certificate and a signed book from Gale Lemerand, “To Win in Business…Bet on the Jockey.”
Before the guest speaker started, Lemerand paid homage to the late Bernie Simpkins, saying he “adorned” him. He also went on to tell the audience, “Surround yourself with great people” and finally “Continue your education, that’s paramount.”
Kelvin França, via Pexels
Rosen started with a detailed depiction of his childhood and upbringing. He grew up in New York and went to a music and arts high school. He then went on to achieve a bachelor’s in Hotel Management and then served in the military as a 1st Lieutenant.
His professional career started as part of an event staff at a Hilton climbing the ranks to management. Later he would be a part time owner of a hotel in Mexico. Unfortunately, due to legislation, he had to give up ownership of the hotel because he was not a Mexican citizen. The new owners ended up firing him.
Thus began his career at Disney, helping open the resorts in Orlando. After the success of the new resorts with his help, he expected a rightfully deserved promotion and was denied. Instead, he ended up being fired. He then found a small hotel he was able to buy but did not realize he accepted the mortgage of the hotel as well (which was around two million dollars).
His wits kept him alive. He made his way up north and made a deal with five motorcoach companies as stops for their tourist flow. Then, he eventually purchased his second property after managing the hotel for five years. Today, the Rosen empire oversees seven properties and roughly seven thousand rooms with about five thousand associates.
InMotion met with Lemerand before the festivities to go over the importance of events like these. “I think it is wonderful that young people can hear from successful entrepreneurs and different walks of life,” he said. “It’s a real learning experience and they can get a better idea in what direction they want to go in, in their career.
Finally, Lemerand spoke about the connection between being an entrepreneuer and philanthropy. “If your fortunate enough to become successful to give back to the community,” he said. “At this stage in my life, I’m spending most of my time giving back to the state and the area. Especially [back to] education, because I didn’t have any.”