Elizabeth Lanzaro joined UG2 in May 2022 as account director at a leading veterinary teaching hospital, bringing more than 25 years of expertise in client services, operations leadership, labor management, and client-centric strategic advising.
After earning her BA degree in Business Administration from Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Elizabeth began her career in the hospitality industry at a 2,000-room Marriott in New York City. That first role launched her into the world of hospitality managing multiple accounts, multi-site operations, and international operations. Three years later, Marriott International sent her to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to open a new resort. Her success deemed the adjustment in her title to International Champion. When Marriott expanded to Latin America and the Middle East, Elizabeth was among the directors selected to implement Marriott’s standards and guidelines at the new properties. She served many roles at Marriot International from Director of Rooms, Multi-Unit General Manager, and Senior District Manager. Her 17 years in the industry afforded her the opportunity to travel to different places and work on different continents. In 2010, she transitioned from hospitality to healthcare, where she excelled for 10 years before joining UG2.
Elizabeth is a true ambassador of UG2’s core values. Acting as an extension of a customer’s leadership team has been at the heart of her success, and she credits her willingness to truly listen and attend to a client’s constantly evolving needs.
“Especially in healthcare, priorities shift,” says Elizabeth. “Staying attuned to what is important to the client and how the organizational goals change, keeping abreast of those changes and aligning yourself with the client to support new goals—that’s what makes a successful relationship.”
Listening and remaining attuned to the needs of others also allowed Elizabeth to promote diversity, equity and inclusion as a hallmark of her leadership since early in her career.
“I can honestly say that the most significant skills I have acquired are directly related to my many years of interactions with a very diverse group of people and cultures,” she explains. “I never underestimate the power of people. They are the force behind every goal and every initiative.”
Elizabeth takes time to get to know her customers and teams. She recalls when she worked at the hotel with many Asian staff, she carefully curated the schedule during Lunar New Year to ensure anyone who celebrated and wished for time off was guaranteed the holiday. Likewise, during Ramadan, she always offered employees who observed the opportunity to reduce or change their hours to accommodate fasting and family time. These examples offer just a glimpse of how truly listening to the employees she manages allows Elizabeth to understand and proactively accommodate their individual needs. Her team-oriented, emotionally intelligent approach has enabled Elizabeth to consistently build strong, resilient, satisfied teams who embrace challenges with gusto, support one another, and stay with her for the long haul.
Elizabeth’s success in the healthcare industry is a reflection of her willingness to go above and beyond and take a patient-centered approach to the work. Today, that continuous striving for excellence has already proven a huge boon to her UG2 client. Elizabeth and her team not only embraced the veterinary hospital’s goal to reduce hospital-acquired infections, but they also surpassed industry standards to become one of the cleanest veterinary hospitals operating in the US.
All of these attributes together, with a knack for solving problems and thinking outside the box, and a record of demonstrating integrity and respect in all of her interactions, made Elizabeth an ideal candidate to join UG2—and the admiration is mutual. UG2 appeared to be a good fit as she sought to join a company that shared her core values, and coincidentally, she is also a lover of animals.
“When I met Jim Larkin on site here at the veterinary hospital, I immediately thought he was somebody that I could work with,” Elizabeth recalls. “And then I met Jonathan and I thought that he was also somebody that I really wanted to work with. What really convinced me was months later when I visited UG2 headquarters at Halloween. was impressed with the people I met. That was when I felt like part of the UG2 family and that I had made the right decision and I was with the right company.”
It is great working with Elizabeth and UG2 is lucky to have such an empathetic and inspiring leader like her.