The Penn State School of Hospitality Management within the College of Health and Human Development and the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society (PSHRS) have named Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Cvent, because the 2025 Hospitality Executive of the Year.
Aggarwal will likely be honored on the 2025 PSHRS Industry Awards and Reception, which can happen at 4:30 p.m. on April 8, 2025, on the Nittany Lion Inn amongst alumni, college, business companions and college students.
“This recognition is an amazing honor,” Aggarwal mentioned. “The hospitality business is the spine of making memorable experiences and profitable occasions, and Penn State’s esteemed program has persistently been a cornerstone in nurturing new expertise and contemporary views. Bringing folks collectively is on the coronary heart of what we do at Cvent, and we’re proud to contribute to an business rooted in service and real human connection. Thank you to the Penn State School of Hospitality Management and PSHRS for recognizing our unimaginable group and the impression they’ve made over the past 25 years.”
Aggarwal based Cvent in 1999 with the aim of constructing assembly planning simpler for his friends within the enterprise group. Cvent has since grow to be a global-leading supplier of conferences, occasions and hospitality administration know-how. Today, Cvent’s platform powers tens of millions of digital, in-person and hybrid occasions for hundreds of organizations, together with half of the Fortune 500.
“Our hospitality management majors at Penn State, and especially our students pursuing the entrepreneurship and innovation minor, are inspired by Reggie’s ability to see an opportunity, create a solution to an industry problem, and steward that solution into a global, thriving company,” mentioned Donna Quadri-Felitti, Marvin Ashner Endowed Director of the Penn State School of Hospitality Management. “He is not only a megastar to those students, but an example our faculty use across our curriculum about the value of tech-enabled, stakeholder-focused hospitality enterprises led by visionaries like Reggie.”
Under Aggarwal’s management, Cvent has grown to greater than 4,800 staff and 22,000 clients worldwide. In June 2023, Cvent was acquired for $4.6 billion and have become a personal firm below Blackstone, one of many world’s largest personal fairness corporations.
Once featured as a rising star by Forbes Magazine, Aggarwal additionally has been named the No. 1 SaaS CEO by The SaaS Report, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and one of many 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. Aggarwal was named essentially the most admired CEO by the Washington Business Journal, inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2022, and inducted into the Business Travel Hall of Fame in 2019, amongst different accolades.
In addition, Aggarwal has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Business Week for his assembly and occasion business experience.
“PSHRS continues to be energized by the high level and prowess of hospitality industry icons that gravitate to our coveted School of Hospitality Management,” mentioned Tom Neely, president of PSHRS and president and CEO of Thomas E. Strauss. “Reggie, as an entrepreneur, is a most excellent example of our industry’s acceptance of new ideas that facilitate new opportunities that truly move to help our industry be better. For over 60 years, we have been honoring those who have elevated our industry to new heights, and Reggie will be a wonderful addition to this pantheon of professionals considered to be some of the greatest in hospitality management.”
Aggarwal graduated with a bachelor of science diploma from the University of Virginia, a juris physician diploma from Washington and Lee University Law School, and an LLM (post-law diploma) from Georgetown University Law School. He additionally acquired an honorary doctorate from Southeastern University for his contribution to the group.
About the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society
The Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society was based to strengthen all hospitality professions and improve the repute of the Hospitality Management program (HM). PSHRS is an Alumni Group of the Penn State Alumni Association and the College of Health and Human Development Alumni Society.
PSHRS supplies a method for attaining nearer fellowship amongst alumni, college and college students. PSHRS serves those that are presently attending Penn State in HM or who’re graduates of this system, in addition to those that work throughout the HM industries and have attended Penn State or are “associates” of this system.
About the School of Hospitality Management
Established in 1937, Penn State’s School of Hospitality Management is among the nation’s earliest and most revered colleges of hospitality administration. Its top-ranked undergraduate and doctoral packages put together world leaders with a rigorous, numerous curriculum centered on engaged scholarship, that includes partnerships with Penn State’s Hospitality Services, Housing and Food Services, and prime world hospitality manufacturers. It’s additionally residence to the oldest Penn State alumni program group, the Penn State Hotel & Restaurant Society. New to the varsity’s portfolio is an progressive and centered Master of Professional Studies in Hospitality Management graduate diploma program.
For 88 years, the Penn State School of Hospitality Management has supplied excellent management for a worldwide and dynamic hospitality business, providing progressive packages, analysis and repair to the career alongside world-class college, employees and college students. The faculty conjures up all college students to pursue excellence in scholarship, exhibit a powerful work ethic, and grow to be profitable and moral hospitality leaders.
For extra details about the varsity or the PSHRS Industry Awards and Reception, contact Ben Jellison, director of business and alumni relations, at [email protected] or 814-865-6728.
Ben Jellison
Director of Industry and Alumni Relations
814-865-6728
Penn State School of Hospitality Management