Harris Rosen Collection

Harris Rosen graduated from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in 1961, then served as an officer in the U.S. Army. After he returned to the US, he completed the Advance Management course at the University of Virginia's Graduate School of Business before officially beginning his hospitality industry career at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. He later worked for the Hilton Hotel Corporation, Post Company, and helped design and develop the Contemporary Resort Hotel and Polynesian Village Hotel, which opened at Walt Disney World in Orlando in 1971.

With very little capital, Rosen started his own business, assuming the mortgage of a Quality Inn on the verge of bankruptcy. Today, he owns the largest Quality Inn in the chain. He continued to expand Rosen Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Tamar Inns) by building three additional hotels for leisure travelers and two award-winning convention hotels. From these small beginnings, he now owns the largest independent hotel company in Florida, which employs more than 3,000 people.

In an unprecedented move within the hotel industry, Mr. Rosen enacted his "Shares of Success" incentive, which has distributed no less than $1.5 million per year to his full-time employees. However, the project he is most proud of is his Tangelo Park Pilot Program. Since 1993, the program has awarded full college scholarships to students in the underprivileged area.

For his unselfish contributions to improving the quality of life for parents and children in Orlando, Mr. Rosen was awarded the distinguished AMVETS Silver Helmet Award and the 1999 Orlandoan of the Year by Orlando magazine. He continues to provide assistance to the community including his recent donation of more than $18 million to the University of Central Florida to construct a school of hospitality management which opened on January 4, 2004. Rosen served as a member of the UCF Board of Trustees and was awarded trustee emeritus status by the board in 2013.

Rosen is a member of the Cornell Society of Hotelmen, and the Waldorf Astoria Distinguished Alumni Association. He is past-President of the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and currently serves on the board of directors of the O/OCVB and also the NCCJ, the Boy & Girls Club, the Boggy Creek Gang, and the YMCA Aquatic Center. Rosen’s philanthropic interests also include the YMCA, the UCF Scholarship Fund, the Jewish National Fund, the local JCC and Rollins College, among others.