HOUSTON, Texas (March 29, 2005) --  The Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston announces a Hospitality Industry event open to the public.  The Seventh Annual Eric Hilton Chair Distinguished Lecture Series is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, at 10:00 a.m. in Alumni Hall, Room S104, in the South Wing of Hilton College.  No RSVP is required.  Seating is limited - please arrive early. This event is free and sponsored by The Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management.

The featured speaker is Ms. Dorothy Nicholson.  She is a 1977 graduate of the Hilton College, and is now the Principal/Founder of Nicholson Interests.  She will lecture on her successful journey as a graduate of our College.  Her career commenced in the hospitality industry in Sales and Marketing for the pre-opening of the full-service independent The Grand, now the Hotel Derek  She is the seventh consecutive graduate of the College to speak at the Series.

Her present position as principal and founder of Nicholson Interests, involves being head of a private equity investment firm that search for opportunities to participate in the growing hospitality industry.   She founded Nicholson Interests in 2000.  Early ventures included hotels, food service, an internet reservation service and other travel-related concerns.  After events of 2001 affected the hospitality industry, she diversified her portfolio to include oil and gas and real estate, and also became a charter investor in the newly established Texas Women Ventures Fund.

About the Hospitality Management Program at the Conrad N. Hilton College The Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management was established in 1969 to meet the demand for professional education to accommodate an increasingly complex hospitality industry.  The Hospitality Management Program prepares students to deal with changing business conditions, and presents both theoretical and practical approaches to the diverse needs of the industry.  The Hospitality Management Program holds the distinction of being one of the top programs in the world.