A native of Caracas, Venezuela, Ronald Harrar graduated from Lynn with a B.S. in business administration in 2001. He went on to receive a master’s degree in hospitality management from New York University in 2002.
While a student at Lynn, Harrar spent a semester in Ireland at American College Dublin. “That’s where I got interested in the hospitality industry. We toured all the best hotels and castles in Ireland. It was a great experience.”
Harrar collects and sells contemporary pieces by such art-world giants as Kusama, Fontana and Calder—with works ranging from paintings and sculptures to photography.
His loft, in the Chelsea section of New York City, houses works that sell for hundreds to millions of dollars. The most expensive piece he has sold is by Italian sculptor Lucio Fontana, the first European artist to truly promote “spatialism” and the idea of performance art.
Harrar’s fondest memory of his time at Lynn? “… That it was always on the cutting edge of new technology. Back in 1998, we didn’t have the technology that we do today. eBay was just being created … nobody really knew what it was. We’d have classes on how to sell an item over the Internet, but there were no digital cameras and eBay couldn’t upload the photos. Everything was so complicated. But I did actually sell an item. The professors brought the current technology into the education.”
Harrar is a member of the Lynn University Leadership Society, and he was recently invited to join the President’s Alumni Advisory Council—a hand-selected, prestigious group of alumni leaders who provide President Kevin M. Ross with feedback and ideas for the university.
Residents of New York City, Harrar and his wife Valery have a 7-year-old son, Yves, and 5-year-old twin daughters, Clara Alessia and Stephania.
