"Conversations with Alumni" - Sadie Falletti ’15

Sadie Falletti ’15

Corporate Director of Distribution

Pyramid Global Hospitality

Interviewed by Funmi Agboola '27

Chatting with Sadie was really insightful and delightful! She began by describing her early involvement at Cornell, where she worked as a valet at the Statler Hotel throughout her first year. Although she volunteered with HEC, she did not participate in HLDP. Interestingly, she described herself as more involved with Hotelie life after graduation than during school. Sadie is the former President of the Cornell Hotel Society in New England, where she oversaw alumni relations, hosted events, and connected Hotelies across different stages of their careers. She genuinely enjoys event planning as a creative outlet, even though it is not her professional focus.

Throughout our conversation Sadie emphasized the importance of the Hotelie network. She admitted that she was once hesitant to reach out to older alumni because she assumed they were too busy or uninterested. Now, as a graduate, she finds it meaningful when students contact her, and she enjoys offering support even when she does not have a job opportunity to share. She repeated advice she once heard from a DDLS speaker, which was to volunteer for tasks, even the ones no one wants to do. By raising your hand for small projects, you become the person others trust, which often leads to higher level work and more visibility with leadership.

We also talked about the Establishment course that all Hotelies experience. She was part of one of the first groups to complete it when the name was first changed to “Establishment”, and at the time it was held in the Terrace restaurant. Her team created a playful theme called Suit and Thai, inspired by the Justin Timberlake song, which combined Thai cuisine prepared by her teammate with a front-of-house design based on bow ties and elevated presentation. She described this project as fun and memorable, showing how creativity can transform a simple class assignment into an experience students remember years later.

When I asked whether she would change anything about her career, she said she would not. She explained that her career developed naturally rather than through a rigid plan. She originally hoped to become a director of sales and marketing for an independent hotel. While she was working in business travel sales, she became interested in building reports and analyzing performance data. She often helped the revenue leader at her property, which eventually led her into revenue management when that person left. Her advice was to continue doing what interests me, especially in marketing, while staying open to new skills and areas that feel exciting. Some people follow a strict timeline for their careers, but her approach was to follow what inspired her at each step.

In the final part of our conversation we discussed her motivation. She described herself as a hotel person at her core. She grew up on Cape Cod, which is a tourism-focused community, and she fell in love with service and the feeling of transporting guests into a different environment. She finds energy in both the emotional side of hospitality and the operational work that guests never see, including rate strategies and performance planning. She stays connected to that passion through organizations such as CHS and HSMAI. Attending networking events and being surrounded by people who share the same interests helps her reconnect with her purpose whenever work feels routine or busy.