Special RepoRt : Leadership hotel world can be , and I loved it ,” he says . “ I never planned a career in this business , but the mental stimulation of being an executive or an entrepreneur in such an intriguing and global arena became , and continues to be , an endlessly appealing challenge .”
His restless energy to deconstruct , rethink and invent brands fueled a fairy-tale career . From working alongside Sternlicht and a whiz-kid team at Starwood on strategic planning for the then-nascent W and Westin brands , Mirza took his entrepreneurial expertise to Hilton Worldwide to strategize the launch of the Waldorf Astoria brand and reinvigorate the F & B offer with a global menu of celebrity chefs . Ready for a new challenge by 2005 , he decamped to Caesars Entertainment , first to spearhead its non-gaming division , and later to head its hospitality ventures and Caesars Global Life division .
The pay-off for a twodecade learning curve came in 2011 , when venture capitalist Robert Roche tapped him to be president and CEO of his ready-for-rollout Cachet Hotel Group . Mirza stepped into the new company ’ s corner office with a portfolio of one property — Shanghai ’ s first carbon-neutral hotel , URBN — and a mandate to shake up the region with a family of cool , locavore Asian lifestyle brands . This would be the acid test for whether he could beat the corporate hotel world or whether he ’ d end up having to join it .
Not surprisingly , he saw a new kind of executive team as a critical differentiator from the ex-pat contingents .
He and Roche also know that ,
“ The speed of The AsiAn mArkeT is A consTAnT chAllenge , buT iT ’ s The pAce of innovATion . from discounT Airlines To AlibAbA , This is where chAnge is coming from .”
– AlexAnder MirzA especially for a new and as-yet-unproven voice , money talks . They put skin into their project and are in the process of developing a real estate fund .
And forget about dipping a toe in the pool of hot Asian markets . From the single URBN hotel , the company has already opened hotels under its own Cachet brand and the URBN flag , as well as creating r . hotel . Several more mixed-use urban developments are in the works . If that ’ s not enough , Mirza also has an eye on the resort space . Going too fast ? “ No . The speed of the Asian market is a constant challenge , but it ’ s the pace of innovation . From discount airlines to Alibaba , this is where change is coming from ,” Mirza says .
Penthouse at URBN in Shanghai www . hotelsmag . com April 2015 HOTELS 41