People of The Institute       Instructor Profiles         Neal Bermas, Ph.D.   Neal Bermas brings a range of experience to ICE®'s Culinary Management program, including diverse consulting projects from the hotel, gaming and restaurant industries. With a BA in both psychology and business from the University of Miami and a doctorate in policy and management from Brandeis, Neal has a unique approach to the service industry, one that he describes as "people-oriented, yet with a very practical business focus." In addition to teaching at ICE®, Neal has an appointment as an adjunct professor in NYU's Food Studies Program, were he teaches management courses. He’s also been on the faculty at NYU's Stern School of Business and lectured at UCLA and the University of Southern California and manages his own consulting group, Bermas Associates. As well as such notable clients as The Walt Disney Company, Sheraton and Meridian Hotels, the group's clients have included the Seminole tribe in Florida, the Montauket Indian Nation on Long Island and the Oneida Nation of New York State (he worked with the Oneida to open their Turning Stone Casino Resort and five restaurants in Verona, New York) Despite being a New York City native, Neal has a number of western credentials. He has been actively involved in operating an award-winning steakhouse near Telluride, Colorado, that was named one of National Geographic's "Fifty Best Little Bars and Restaurants in the U.S." He’s also an avid horseman and served as a past president of Colorado Cutting Horse Association---a position that he’s certainly the only born-and-bred New Yorker to ever hold Neal is currently developing a new hospitality curriculum for ICE® scheduled to debut in 2004. The six-month program is aimed at those with career aspirations in the hotel and resort industry as well as at entrepreneurs planning their own small inns or B & Bs August, 2003