{"id":55350,"date":"2013-11-18T11:54:23","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T16:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=55350"},"modified":"2019-06-25T16:24:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T20:24:12","slug":"rosen-alumnus-honored-at-black-and-gold-gala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/rosen-alumnus-honored-at-black-and-gold-gala\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosen Alumnus Honored at Black &amp; Gold Gala"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a title=\"University of Central Florida\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of Central Florida<\/a> recently celebrated the professional achievements of some of its most distinguished graduates at the UCF Alumni Association\u2019s annual Black\u00a0&amp; Gold Gala. Among this year\u2019s honorees were David Heckaman, \u201993, an alumnus of UCF\u2019s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.<\/p>\n<p>Heckaman, who is now vice president of technology development for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, received the Professional Achievement Award at the gala. This honor is given to a deserving alumnus who has reached for the stars in his\/her respective field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always impressive to see the success that Rosen College alumni like David achieve,\u201d said Dr. Abraham Pizam, dean of UCF\u2019s Rosen College. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to the quality of our graduates when we can welcome them back and honor them in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born to a family of hoteliers and inn keepers, Heckaman came to UCF with a plan \u2013 to study hospitality and become a general manager. While studying for his degree, he worked at several hotels around the Orlando airport and tourist attractions, taking advantage of the city&#8217;s status as an industry capital.<\/p>\n<p>After graduation, he took on various management positions at hotels around the country, developing a passion for building new properties. When he joined the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, he took 20 years of experience in the hospitality and technology industries, becoming a leader in designing and implementing innovative data systems for large resorts.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F-XcRaDvdro&amp;feature=share&amp;list=UUApWV3NC2rHtdfDx6C6BOXg\">Click here to view a short video about Heckaman.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Alumni of UCF\u2019s Rosen College of Hospitality Management have been recognized at the Black &amp; Gold Gala since 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of Central Florida recently celebrated the professional achievements of some of its most distinguished graduates at the UCF Alumni Association\u2019s annual Black\u00a0&amp; Gold Gala. Among this year\u2019s honorees were David Heckaman, \u201993, an alumnus of UCF\u2019s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. Heckaman, who is now vice president of technology development for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, received the&hellip;","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":55462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4068,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-55350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-rosen-college-of-hospitality-management","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rosen Alumnus Honored at Black &amp; Gold Gala | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The University of Central Florida recently celebrated the professional achievements of some of its most distinguished graduates at the UCF Alumni\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/rosen-alumnus-honored-at-black-and-gold-gala\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rosen Alumnus Honored at Black &amp; 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