Influential Woman · Food and Beverage, Hospitality, Entrepreneurship
Lisa Holland
Founder and CEO, Ova It!
Manchester, VT 05255
Her Story
About Lisa
Lisa Holland is the Founder and CEO of Ova It Chocolate and a hospitality and guest experience leader with more than two decades of experience designing and delivering high-touch, people-centered environments across hotels, resorts, events, and service-driven organizations. She began her career in hospitality at the age of 15, building a lifelong foundation in face-to-face connection, customer service, and creating meaningful guest experiences. Over the years, she has remained deeply committed to helping people feel welcomed, valued, and engaged, which has become the core of her professional identity. Her career has included senior leadership roles across both hospitality and real estate. After many years in hospitality, she briefly transitioned into real estate, earning her certification and working with Douglas Elliman in Manhattan, where she built strong client relationships and expanded her experience in high-end service environments. She later returned to hospitality, moving into more corporate and operational leadership roles with major organizations including Accenture, Vail Resorts and Equinox Hotels & Resorts, where she focused on guest experience, conference services, food and beverage operations, and large-scale event execution. During this time, she relocated to Vermont during the COVID era, navigating significant personal and professional transitions while staying grounded in her long-term career path. More recently, Lisa made the intentional decision to pursue entrepreneurship, launching Ova It Chocolate, a creative venture inspired by midlife transitions and her belief in bringing humor, honesty, and joy to life’s evolving stages. Drawing on a modest inheritance from her father as seed support, she committed to building something of her own before a major personal milestone, while continuing to contribute to hospitality in leadership roles. Today, she continues to balance her professional experience in hospitality with growing her business, bringing resilience, authenticity, and a lifelong passion for service into everything she does.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lisa
01What do you attribute your success to?
My determination and the support I get from people in my life. It's been everything.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my very first job when I was 15 years old. The person interviewing me asked how many hours I wanted, and I said, oh, it doesn't matter. And they said, it does matter. When he asked if I wanted 100 hours, I said ok. I didn’t even know how many hours existed in a work week. He laughed and said I'm hiring you for your honesty and your willingness. With those two things, whatever you decide to do, you're gonna be good. I just carried that my whole life, I may not be perfect, I may not have all the answers, but my willingness to learn and being genuine has propelled me forward every time.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't let fear take over. Really fight through it and realize whatever was given to you, the opportunity, the creative thought, follow it through the best you can every day, and don’t give in to that call of fear, because it's loud. Just tame it down, follow it through, it came to you for a reason, and do your best every day. Once you do that and you calm down those thoughts, the next day, whatever it was, it's not as bad as it was in the moment. Keep doing it and listen, even at the end of the day or the year, you can look back and say, I did it. I took the chance, I was brave.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenge right now is definitely my lack of marketing technology knowledge but I’m learning more everyday and AI helps. What has been a benefit for me has been the interaction with people, the joy it's created, the stories being shared and seeing people connect with the product.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think integrity. I could take some shortcuts, and it would have made my life a lot easier. But I knew in the long run, that you face that. So, do it right the first time, the best that you can. It's not going to be perfect. But you know that your intention was to do it the best way you possibly could. Especially coming from a hospitality background and creating great experiences for people, you have to want to see that joy for them at the end of the tunnel, and get them there. Doing the best you can in the right way, even when no one is watching.
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