Editorial Board   Guest Author

Ms. Tukan

Randa Tukan

Senior Vice Principal & Director of Interiors, HOK

Randa Tukan, leading the Hospitality, Retail and Residential Commercial Interiors practice at HOK Toronto, brings more than 25 years of experience in interior architecture and design, both in Canada and around the world.  Her expertise extends far beyond the world of interiors, encompassing architecture, urban planning, landscape, economics, branding and graphics. Her design vision is a fully integrated one, ensuring that the expectations of the client and the market are met and enhanced. As a director of interiors, she uses design to advance clients' branding and market positioning.

 

Ms. Tukan's client list includes many of the world's best-known hotel brands: InterContinental, Marriott, Delta, Renaissance, Shangri-La, Hyatt, and Hilton. Her projects have won numerous design awards and accolades. In 2016, the HOK Toronto interiors team, which she overseas, spearheaded the award-winning proposal, the Driftscape, which received the Radical Innovation Award. The coveted, annual award is juried by global hospitality industry influencers, leaders as well as operators and developers and selected by an audience of designers, architects and hoteliers.

Ms. Tukan holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Fine Arts and a Post-Graduate Certificate of Special Studies in Management and Administration, both from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

She is a member of the advisory board for Humber College interior design program, a site visitor for the Council of Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), and has taught at the Ontario College of Art. Ms. Tukan is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

Please visit http://www.hok.com for more information.

Ms. Tukan can be contacted at 416-342-7201 or randa.tukan@hok.com

Coming up in December 2019...

Hotel Law: A Labor Crisis and Cyber Security

According to a recent study, the hospitality industry accounted for 2.9 trillion dollars in sales and in the U.S. alone, was responsible for 1 in 9 jobs. In an industry of that scope and dimension, legal issues touch every aspect of a hotel's operation, and legal services are required in order to conform to all prevailing laws and regulations. Though not all hotels face the same issues, there are some industry-wide subjects that are of concern more broadly. One of those matters is the issue of immigration and how it affects the ability of hotels to recruit qualified employees. The hotel industry is currently facing a labor crisis; the U.S. Labor Department estimates that there are 600,000 unfilled jobs in the industry. Part of the problem contributing to this labor shortage is the lack of H2B visas for low-skilled workers, combined with the difficulty in obtaining J-1 visas for temporary workers. Because comprehensive immigration reform is not being addressed politically, hotel managers expect things are going to get worse before they get better. Corporate cyber security is another major legal issue the industry must address. Hotels are under enormous pressure in this area given the large volume of customer financial transactions they handle daily. Recently, a federal court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission had the power to regulate corporate cyber security, so it is incumbent on hotels to establish data security programs in order to prevent data breaches. The lack of such programs could cause hotels to face legal threats from government agencies, class action lawsuits, and damage to their brand image if a data breach should occur. These are just two of the critical issues that the December issue of Hotel Business Review will examine in the area of hotel law.
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