Our Founder's Bio:

Hannelore R. Leavy has lived the spa life all her life. Born and raised in Vienna , Austria where spas are a way of life. When moving to the United States , she started to promote health vacations to European spas in her capacity as Marketing Director of the Austrian National Tourist Office. Her 20+ years of experience in the promotion of travel and tourism made her a natural candidate to become "Jeffrey Joseph's Spa-Finders" Vice President of Sales and Marketing and the Associate Publisher of THE SPA FINDER in 1986. She was the innovator of many of Spa Finder’s projects, including the acceptance of advertising in the Spa Finder catalog and the organization of the first Spa Symposium in 1990 from which I/SPA (International Spa Association) emerged.

Since the mid-eighties Hannelore has been a strong force in forming the U.S. spa industry. She is considered a major source for information on spas in general and the day spa industry in particular, which she started to identify as early as 1991, conducting a 3-year research study on this emerging market, which resulted in the publication of the first Day Spa Directory in 1994. She is the Founder and Executive Director of THE DAY SPA ASSOCIATION, a professional association dedicated to the education of the consumer as to the benefits and availability of spa treatments and for professionals to preserve and elevate the standard of spa services.

Hannelore has been conducting workshops at all major esthetic, massage & spa trade shows since the early 1990’s, she is a frequent presenter at spa industry/expert panels. She was recently honored to address the Spa Conference at Shanghai , China to present the Day Spa industry to this emerging market and is involved in the forming of the China Spa Association. The European Spa industry is also looking to her to learn from their American counter parts, which she is representing at Cosmoprof , Italy . She is a frequent contributor to all trade publications that make up the spa industry, as well as sought after by its’ writers for expert advice. In addition, many spa books, both for the consumers and the spa trade include forwards written by her, and quote her frequently.

To reach the consumer, Hannelore has appeared on television programs such as CNN Financial News and CNBC, has been quoted hundreds of times in newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, New York Magazine, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Dispatch, LA Magazine, The New Yorker, Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, Time Magazine just to name a few, and is sought after to speak at women’s business gatherings and workshops. She is the co-author with Dr. Reinhard Bergel of the best-selling book THE SPA ENCYCLOPEDIA, the first-ever compilation of over 100 traditional spa treatments, including their benefits and contra-indications, an invaluable tool for spa professionals, and a guide for the consumer for learn about spa treatments. She is presently working on her second volume, which concentrates on the skincare treatments at spas and the anti-aging evolution. Subsequent books are planned to address other major components of a spa.

Realizing the trend in the market place towards medical spa services, she founded THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL SPA ASSOCIATION in 2002, of which she is the Executive Director and is rapidly becoming the spokes person for the Medical Spa industry throughout the world.