THE INTERVIEW : CLAIRE CHIANG
BANYAN TREE CO-FOUNDER CLAIRE CHIANG WANTS TO LINK WHAT IS GOOD FOR SOCIETY WITH SUSTAINABLE , PROFITABLE HOTELKEEPING .
by JEFF WEINSTEIN , EDITOR IN CHIEF
When Claire Chiang met KP Ho over lunch in 1975 , they found a common interest in wanting to develop businesses in a way that would improve the quality of life for surrounding communities , and generally do what is good for society . The Singaporean- Chinese Chiang , who spent years as a sociologist and university professor in Singapore , and Ho , a Thai-Chinese who first worked as a journalist , clicked during that first meeting and started traveling across Asia . They hitchhiked and took trains to better understand development issues and engaged in discussions about how society and business could be developed in a more harmonious manner .
In 1984 , the now-married couple chanced across what would become their first parcel of land , 550 acres ( 223 hectares ) on the site of an abandoned tin mine at Bang Tao Bay in Phuket , Thailand . About two years later , Laguna Resorts & Hotels , a subsidiary of Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd ., opened Laguna Phuket as an integrated destination resort with sustainability and social responsibility at its core . At the time , the couple had no big hotel development plans , but they recognized the need to continually innovate .
Between 1987 and 2006 Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts was set up to build and manage luxury boutique hotels and resorts , Angsana was launched as a more accessible alternative brand , a Green Imperative Fund was formalized for the company ’ s CSR efforts and the company made its way to China with the Banyan Tree Ringha in Yunnan .
Fast forward to 2006 , when Banyan Tree became a listed company and had shareholders with similar expectations to theirs : innovate and grow . Of course , Chiang and Ho did not stand still , and today the company stands as a global , property-related branded developer . The group has 33 hotels and resorts , 68 spas , 80 galleries and three golf courses in 28 countries ; by 2016 , those numbers are projected to grow to 63 hotels and resorts , 117 spas and 112 galleries in 33 countries .
But Chiang , 61 , is adamant that one thing that has not and will not change is the company ’ s commitment to its first principles of governance , environmental protection and community engagement — the triple bottom line . And while admirable , this creed — not surprisingly — also tends to create the biggest challenges with owners and investors , who , Chiang says , must continually be educated about the company ’ s do-good philosophy .
HOTELS recently interviewed Chiang , senior vice president of Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd ., who also pioneered the group ’ s retail business in 1996 and has since overseen the
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