Dr. John R. Walker is the Marshall Professor and director of the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management Program at the Alliant International University in San Diego, California. John's fifteen years of industry experience includes management training at the Savoy Hotel London. This was followed by terms as food and beverage manager, assistant rooms division manager, catering manager, and general manager with Grand Metropolitan Hotels, Selsdon Park Hotel, Rank Hotels, Inter-Continental Hotels, and the Coral Reef Resort, Barbados, West Indies.

For the past twenty years he has taught at two- and four-year schools in Canada and the United States. In addition to being a hospitality management consultant and text author, he has been published in The Cornell Hotel Restaurant Administration Quarterly and The Hospitality Educators Journal. He is the author of Introduction to Hospitality, published by Prentice Hall.

John is a past president of the Pacific Chapter of the Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE). He is a certified hotel administrator and a certified Foodservice Management Professional (FMP). He is married to Josielyn Teres, and they are expecting twins in June.