Russell Dazzio, INNOVATOR

Russell Dazzio is Co-Chairman and founder of R&R Global and Chairman of R&R Hotel Group. Upon graduating from UNLV’s Harrah Hotel College in 1972, Dazzio joined the Stardust Hotel & Casino, where very early in his career he showed his knack for innovation, earning him a the honor of being one Las Vegas’ youngest casino executives. After three years learning the ins and outs of casino operations Dazzio left a promising career in gaming for the opportunity to join one of the world’s great international hotel companies, ITT Sheraton. Over the next ten years he rapidly advanced into a number of senior marketing positions. While at ITT Sheraton he was the recipient of three “ITT Idea” and two “Hotel & Marketing Team of the Year” awards. During the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics he orchestrated the largest booking in ITT Sheraton’s history with the Coca Cola Company. Shortly thereafter Dazzio decided the time was right to test his entrepreneurial skills and he founded R&R Hotel Group.

For the next twenty years as R&R Hotel Group’s Chairman he was responsible for shaping and directing the company’s strategic planning, management, consulting and development activities. During his prolific career Dazzio has served on the front lines of many the worlds’ most vibrant centers of commerce and leisure such as Las Vegas, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. During that time he created countless innovative sales, marketing and training campaigns and directed the operations for every type of hospitality venture conceivable. Since joining forces with Global Hospitality to form R&R Global, Dazzio has concentrated his time working on complex mixed-use resort development projects that often involve hotel, residential, retail and restaurant elements. Recently he led the R&R Global team in the opening of one the most luxurious condominium resorts ever built in Jamaica.

In addition to his duties at R&R Hotel Group and R&R Global, Dazzio has found time to serve as an Adjunct Professor at UNLV’s Harrah Hotel College where he has taught graduate level courses on hospitality development. The Hotel College has also solicited Dazzio to become their Principal Hospitality Advisor for INNovation Village, a futuristic mixed-use hospitality development project he co-conceived with the Dean of the Hotel College and is now responsible for seeing comes to fruition. When completed, INNovation Village will become the world’s first operating hotel and conference center designed especially for hospitality technology providers and operators to test and study evolving technologies and “Green” hotel programs.

Dazzio is a popular guest speaker and the recipient of numerous industry and local, state and federal honors and awards. He served as a delegate at the first ever “White House Conference on Tourism”, sits on the Steering Committee for the prestigious JMBM Law Firm’s Developer’s Conference, authors a column for Hospitality Technology Magazine - and is a member of their Advisory Board. He holds a B.S. Degree in Hotel Administration from UNLV where he was a member of the hotel college’s inaugural class and has attended UCLA’s Film School.